From Prevention to Resilience: designing public spaces in times of pandemics

Resilience as core concept

Resilience was the project’s core concept. The term resilience refers to the ability of neighborhoods and cities to deal positively with shock waves. On the one hand, this could be ecological resilience: the challenges surrounding climate resilience and circularity - and how to deal with these at neighborhood level. And on the other hand to social resilience: how can social networks of local residents support each other, learn from each other or take joint action?

Method

This project made an inventory of existing interventions in public space and their working principles. In parallel, interventions for ecological and social resilience were collected and analyzed. These were brought together in an online database. In the subsequent phase, a number of new interventions were designed based on the lessons learned. A “design framework” was also created. The design framework contains elements that designers worldwide can start using to implement locally.

Education

Education played an important role in research. Students from various study programs, including the Master Digital Design, participated in assignments and experiments in the research. They formed the basis of the design of various (digital) interventions.

Team

• Frank Suurenbroek(opens in new window)
• Martijn de Waal
• Wouter Meys

Partners and funding

From Prevention to Resilience was made possible by ZonMw. Partners were: Gemeenten Amsterdam Den Haag, Zwolle, Utrecht, Breda, Almere en Haarlemmermeer, Woningbouwcorporaties Rochdale en Eigen Haard, Ontwerpbureau UN Studio, Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving, Bureau The Beach, BNA onderzoek, Wandelnet, Pakhuis de Zwijger en Netwerk Zorg en Wonen. International partners were: Harvard University Graduate School of Design, The University of Sydney, The Bartlett School of Architecture en City Space Architecture.