Urban and commercial planning, office market, transportation and many other areas in the last decade revolve around the principle of cooperatives. Shared workspaces, shared scooters and bikes, and shared vehicles have long been a familiar thing. But, Covid19 has refined the principle of cooperatives in the public sphere as well. Today, every local authority, planning institution, landscape architect or urban planner must add to their toolbox the planning of urban space. Urban space, open spaces, city squares and sidewalks have become an integral part of city life, and from an element of spatial planning only to one with social significance.

The corona pandemic has radically changed human behavior in public space. At the same time, public space planning took on the meaning not only of leisure, recreation, and sports, but also behavioral elements. Today, planning a public space should be tailored to public behavior and take into account behavioral elements such as the desire to meet people in the open space, the desire to go outside the house, host and get invited over, and spend time with friends in the open space – in a gathering designed to relieve loneliness, work, unite with family, or simply drink coffee.

Landscape architects and urban planners can no longer see the landscape literally – but a more complex reality in which people use the public space to hold social gatherings and work meetings on the park bench; open spaces replace cafes and restaurants as meeting places. Urban planning has become more challenging and requires planners to “re-calculate route.” Today, in the age of Corona, a landscape architect sees not only the need for a landscape, but space as a part used for work meetings, social gatherings, relieving loneliness for the elderly, and more.

Read the full article about redefining public spaces during COVID-19 by Hila Oren at eJewish Philanthropy.