For a long time, world city with a heart – “Weltstadt mit Herz” – was the official marketing slogan of the city of Munich. Nowadays, like any city subject to a stay-at-home-order aimed at mitigating the impact of the Corona pandemic, it resembles more the character of the deserted cities. Munich is thus a “deserted city with a heart”.
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The eyes of the few observers who dare (or need to) venture into the city center see the buildings, streets and infrastructure as they have never seen them before. They seem depleted of their magic that used to attract as many people possible from as many places conceivable. #desertedcities is a popular hashtag on Instagram, as is #ghosttown.
Skeletal structure of urban culture
The eye gazes solitarily along the facades, almost as if one had been shifted into a painting by the Italian master of the scuola metafisica, Giorgio de Chirico. In his art, as in the present, the cityscape is laid bare, devoid of human life, exposing the skeletal structure of urban culture. Gaze wandering, we are startled. In the words of British rock supergroup Cream, “if I could catch your dancing eye, it was on the way, on the road to dreams, yea.” Perhaps it is an urban dreamscape we are witnessing – we might as well hope for a gentle awakening.
Half a year later …
That was half a year ago. In the meantime, societies across the world attempted a return to normal life. This didn’t succeed, and the euphemistic way of describing the outcomes is encapsulated in the term “new normal”, which simply indicates “change”. Our ways of life have changed, and some of us cope with it, while others deny it. Currently, Munich’s city center is under a mandatory mask order. A stroll downtown these days shows a rather heterogeneous picture. Some adhere to the order while others don’t.
Glimpses of Oktoberfest normality
Likely more relevant to the life, image and business this city thrives on is the cancellation of the Oktoberfest. The attempt is made to transform it into a more local and spatially limited form supported by local restaurants. Glimpses of Oktoberfest normality also meet the eye of the observer at the central Königsplatz, where a “Mini-Wiesn” complete with food stalls, kiddie rides and ferris wheel is taking place. This event is part of a city-wide initiative called “Sommer in der Stadt” (Summer in the City). In this sense the song has changed, and Mungo Jerry’s “In The Summertime” tickles ears across town – at least before the autumn leaves begin to fall.
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Read the article about the effects of the pandemic on the built environment.
Due to covid-19, the website of the daily Swedish newspaper “Dagens Nyheter” is now for free until 1st of June. The site provides an interactive map service that shows the spread of the virus over time. The map looks unbalanced in a way that reminds me of a puzzle. If you change the cursor, you will see a red color which over time grows increasingly larger, spreading all over the image showing the Swedish landscape. It is also possible for the color to highlight the situation in the Scandinavian neighboring countries of Norway, Denmark and Finland. But these do not seem to be as affected by this reddish mess as Sweden. What is going on?
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Since mid-March, the overall consensus has been to shut down most of Europe’s societies. This trend is also visible on a global level and it may not be questionable since, after all, a pandemic ravages the world. In several countries such as France, the United Kingdom and Italy, war-like attitudes towards enemy preparedness have been evident in this crisis situation. For example, few could have missed French president Macron’s fiery speech about the importance of fighting this insidious enemy together, of standing united against this threat, which in turn has forced all the French into a spring-long quarantine.
What is it that makes Sweden not react in the same way? Here, the restrictions are much milder with open elementary schools and restaurants, with the only real prohibition not to exceed 50 people in places and public gatherings. The Public Health Authority encourages everyone to take their own personal responsibility in the crisis, with the addition of calling for social distancing, as not to forget to wash your hands frequently. We are also urged not to engage in any unnecessary travel and above all not to visit older relatives. Public transport shows signs with information about keeping a distance and calls on you to not beon that bus or train unless you have a socially important function.
How do people respond to the word ‘recommendation’ in the midst of a global crisis?
In response to this and to the contrasting clarity of foreign authorities in dealing with the situation, the Swedish norms seem to be tightening ever harder and also stifling the Swedes’ trust in the authorities. And rightly so, because how do people respond to the word recommendation in the midst of a global crisis? Rules may give a sense of how political power is wielded, but it can also generate security, respect and a confidence in strong leadership, qualities much needed in a situation like this.
In Sweden, the lack of distinct rules seems to have led to a general distrust in the Swedish authorities, and foremost the Public health authority. If the restrictions here are milder than in the rest of the world, this may add to the argument that the outgoing information on the situation ought to be well thought out. Last week, to inform about the spread of the infection in Stockholm, the public health authority communicated that with each confirmed case of covid-19, there are a 1000 of undetected cases. That would mean 6 million are carrying the infection in Stockholm alone. Clearly, this inaccurate claim was later withdrawn, but with the damage already made – removing further confidence in the public health authority.
Stockholm – the riskiest place to be in at the moment
The media is also not late to take advantage of the authorities’ actions in this situation, and when a strong fear is aroused, people demand and consume information like never before. Flyers with big headlines flicker by about the “New Corona virus” that spreads like wildfire across the world, causing death by suffocation to both young and old. I work in Stockholm myself – the riskiest place to be in at the moment according to the news and I get there by public transport on a daily basis. By the end of March, streets and squares around the Central Station were deserted and the atmosphere haunting, as if the places had been left behind. This persisted for some weeks.
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Playing Russian roulette
But over time people get bored. And above all, you do as others do. As the spring sun peeks out after a half-year-long darkness, it becomes irresistible for most Swedes not neglect their self-elected home quarantine. In a trance-like state, they eel out, dismissing the infection as now having hit a plateau, probably even reached its peak. Covid-19 may well take a break, so you can enjoy an ice cream in the sun. However, this seemingly innocent denial is actually more like playing Russian roulette. But it’s easy to seduce yourself now that the whole situation, similar to a bad horror movie, finally feels too bizarre. You just want to press the pause button and experience a better atmosphere, like hanging out with friends at the nearest cafe. And when there’s no clear prohibition…
Division of the community?
Anger, mostly in the form of passive aggression seems to be the prevalent reaction to this behavior. As the mass consciousness of Sweden is very aware of being politically correct, when someone does not conform and break against “the rules” which, not to forget, are actually recommendations, they really get the evil eye upon them, not only from their own social network, but from anyone with access to social media. You speak ill of those who defy the new-established norm and many friendships are put to the test. It can also be argued to be a question of class – that the real victims in the Swedish situation are the low-paid workers who don’t have the choice of working from home in a fancy summerhouse. Could it be that when the superiors do not give strict prohibitions, we set them up between each other, just to channel the tension? If the large mass is not curbed by the authorities, it is indeed the individual who is called upon to take his or her own responsibility, whose personality is being brutally exposed and thus put to the test, in the end even causing a division of the community?
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On the right track to recover in an unusually elegant way
In the country acclaiming the virtue of the concepts “just enough” and “common sense”, Sweden’s response can well be seen as rather paradoxical. As stated, compared to most other countries, Sweden has adopted a high-risk model for crisis management in a pandemic with an unknown virus. However, this response might not be so weird after all. In global statistical terms, Sweden is at the top regarding how much money is invested in research and science, as well as the proportion of researchers in relation to population. Sweden is also an extremely secular country – according to the World Values Survey, Sweden is in fact the country in the world that is most unique in terms of secular/ rational values and self-expression. In other words, it may not be a totally unfitting conclusion to argue that the idea of God is pretty much past its prime in this country, in favor of science and hipster culture. Although no one currently can predict the full consequences of this pandemic, it can be seen as refreshing that not all countries follow the same line. One can only hope Sweden is on the right track to recover in an unusually elegant way. What is easier to forecast, however, is how the epidemic suites can leave behind a bitter taste of dissociated community among the people. Not to mention the economic repercussions, although here Sweden cannot be seen as a distinct species.
Experiment of social conditioning
I would assume that when everyone in an entire nation such as France and Germany is forced to self-quarantine, it becomes a little easier for the mass to deal with, since someone, i.e. the state has had the final word. Opposed to this is the Swedish approach of letting everyone handle it themselves – which is a much riskier and at the same time very trusting way of dealing with this phenomenon. Still, for the sake of keeping trust in the authorities and to avoid societal fragmentation, an unknown massive threat may be better addressed by distinct rules rather than guidelines. Before all pieces of this puzzle are laid out, the Swedes might be pushed to the limit in an experiment of social conditioning.
Many people in the Western world feel confused about wearing a mask in public to protect themselves and others from coronavirus. In a civic sense, identification is paramount and connects individuals, their exterior appearance and their actions. In Asia, however, people are used to wearing masks. A matter of courtesy or culture? Urbanist Mark Kammerbauer reflects on the connection between an open society, openly accessible public spaces, the way human beings communicate with each other and being open-minded towards wearing a mask in public.
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At this moment of crisis, one important question that concerns people across the globe is whether wearing medical face masks in public will become mandatory. The US is considering this measure to curb the distribution of Covid-19 since the awareness of how the virus can be spread seems to have sunk in. In Europe as well voices are becoming louder that call for wearing masks in public. This is relevant for two different reasons. For one, wearing a mask is not singularly intended to protect the wearer from surrounding people, but the opposite: to protect people around you in case you have been infected, thus preventing you from infecting others. Further, there seems to be a higher propensity towards wearing medical or similar face masks in public in Asia, perhaps so even before the Corona crisis occurred.
A matter of courtesy or culture? Let’s take a look at the situation in Asia. The custom of wearing medical face masks in public can possibly be retraced to various sources – the occurrence of other respiratory diseases and related public health emergencies in the past, the tradition of Cosplay where wearers refer to the idolized figures of Anime and Manga culture (such as Tokyo Ghoul or others), or the way urban space articulates itself in socio-cultural terms. Particularly the latter requires stepping back and considering what, if any, connection there is between the way buildings are articulated within the physical realm we understand as public space and if, in any case, this relates to the way people present themselves in that public space.
Semiotic elements of building facades communicate information to their human observers
It’s more or less a truism when we say that the facades of buildings are their “face”, as is the notion that buildings communicate something to those who look at them. By accepting that notion we have arrived within a postmodernist understanding of the city, its semiotic character, and the information that is communicated in the process. We do know, in the case of the historic European city, that extraverted building facades facing a shared, common, urban public space actually do communicate something to the people who pass by – think of the golden pretzels, shoes and piglets adorning the shops of related, individual trades. Such elements can only be observed in public if and because European cities feature openly accessible public spaces. From the perspective of urban studies, this also opens the possibility of comparing the way semiotic elements of building facades communicate information to their human observers with the way human beings communicate with one another. Following this notion, exposing one’s face in public is the precondition for recognizing the particular individual whose face we gaze upon. In a civic sense, identification is paramount and connects individuals, their exterior appearance and their actions as well as the fruit of their labor within what we call “practice”, or in simpler terms, “everyday life in the city.”
Asian cities: the concept of the closed neighborhood that is walled off towards the surrounding
However, this notion may not be simply applicable to each and every urban context, for instance those where the publicness of urban spaces takes on a different contextual character. When we look at cities in Asia and try to retrace their historic, socio-cultural origins, it helps to consult with experts in the field of the urban everyday life of Asian cities, or in particular, cities in China. Dieter Hassenpflug is such an expert, and his observations are clear. In the case of cities in China, we can identify introversion rather than extroversion, the concept of the closed neighborhood that is walled off towards the surrounding, and a nascent public space that has just recently been coded as such, emerging from what had been merely an open space without any civic intent comparable to historic European cities described above. This provides us with one possible explanation for why Asians might be more akin to wearing face masks in public – communication in public evolved under different spatial circumstances – whereas in those parts of the world informed by European and Anglo-Saxon socio-cultural modes of everyday life this might be hindered by reservations towards facial concealment.
Let’s not forget: the historic practice of walling off a city was not intended to protect the surrounding feudal hinterland from the city, but exactly the other way round. Perhaps we need other examples that are more suited to incentivize mask-wearing. Pop culture might be helpful, as indicated in the Asian case.
Masks produced by Bjarke Ingels Group: protection that allows recognition?
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Innovation in design also offers solutions. Just recently, a mask was developed to ensure that the deaf can still communicate while someone is wearing it. The transparent area in front of the wearer’s mouth ensures lip reading can still take place. Just as recent is the proposal by the renowned architects from Bjarke Ingels Group. “We have adapted an open sourced design by Erik Cederberg of 3DVerkstan for a simplified face shield to be optimized for high volume print production. Whereas his file was for a single element we’ve successfully updated this to a stacked version that is able to print 50 units within 24 hour cycle per printer”, states Kai-Uwe Bergmann, Partner, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group. Within one week, up to 5,000 masks can be produced in-house. Perhaps this is a solution to our global northern mask woes: protection that allows recognition.
Video Credits: Bjarke Ingels Group.
Collaborators: Dr. James Shin from Cornell University, Matthew Griffin from Ultimaker
Sponsors: Mara Hitner and Rhonda Grandy from MatterHackers
Team (BIG): Bernardo Schuhmacher, Carlos Castillo, Christian Salkeld
Many people’s first encounter with the Covid-19 outbreak was in the supermarket, but empty shelves expose supply chain problems that run much deeper than the current crisis.
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Like most people, my first direct encounter with the Covid-19 crisis was in a supermarket. One weekday in the first half of March, I went to pick up a few things at my local Lidl in Osdorp, Amsterdam. Nothing out of the ordinary, but as it happened, we were low on toilet roll. When I went to get some, I saw several people picking up the 24 pack they had on offer. One person was carrying two of these jumbo packs. I’m embarrassed to say that the sight of literally hundreds of toilet rolls leaving the store in a matter of minutes, coupled with the stories of panic-buying I’d seen and heard about in the UK and the US, moved me to pick up a pack myself.
A few days later, on Friday 12th March, the first lockdown measures were introduced by the Dutch government. Shelves were practically empty in many supermarkets by the following morning. Since then, most stocks have been replenished (flour being one of the notable exceptions, apparently even the suppliers of the supermarkets ran out of it), but subsequent trips have remained charged with a new significance that’s somewhat hard to deal with.
Conspicuous abundance
I’m no stranger to fraught supermarket encounters. To be honest, I’ve always found the supermarket a pretty anxiety-inducing space. Maybe it’s the lack of light, or the fact that too much choice stresses me out. I’ve never felt comfortable around such conspicuous abundance. But the feeling that everyone else around me is also equally on edge doesn’t help matters.
For most people in the West, there’s clearly something quite disturbing about empty shelves. Until recently, most of us had come to see them as a thing of the past, or perhaps associated the image with shops in the Soviet Union, and other socialist countries of the past and present. Which is to say, we think of the phenomenon as a product of systems beset by scarcity. It’s this association that has undoubtedly fuelled a number of laughable attempts to displace our own system’s recent failings, by casting it as a momentary taste of what life would be like under a socialist system. But the sudden surge in demand caused by the Covid-19 outbreak is not a momentary taste of life under socialism. Nor is it a sign of the greed of what is likely only a small number of hoarders. Rather, it’s an emphatic expression of the fragility of our entire economic model.
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The problem with distribution
In an article on this subject for Novara Media, Craig Gent quotes a recent statement made by the CEO of British supermarket chain Waitrose made on BBC Newsnight. “The supply of goods, the manufacture of food, is in good shape. There isn’t a problem there; there is enough food. […] The challenge that the supermarkets are facing at the moment is getting that food into their distribution centres and then having enough space, and having enough lorries and drivers to get it to the shops, and then being able to keep it on the shelves.”
This is a pretty accurate explanation of the essential requirements for our system’s “just-in-time” supply chains to function properly. It’s not about the availability of food, but its distribution. Just-in-time supply chains are principally concerned with maximising efficiency (and profit) by minimising waste: of space (e.g. goods sitting in costly storage facilities); and time (e.g. workers spending too long delivering or processing those goods, or demanding too high a price for their labour). This goal, to trim all the excess fat from a supply chain, to make it as “lean” as possible, works very well when everything else in the system is ticking along as normal. But it leaves very little room for sudden unexpected shifts in consumption patterns: like when a large section of the population are suddenly compelled to stay home and stock up on supplies while the (normally critically undervalued but now all of a sudden “essential”) workers tasked with keeping the supply chains moving are reluctant to come out to work for fear of infection.
Historical Aberration
Another source of fragility is the thin spread of these supply across the entire globe. With containerisation and logistics innovations having dramatically reduced the costs associated with transporting goods from one part of the world to another, the materials and work contained within a single product can come from dozens of countries in different parts of the world before it reaches the consumer. Again, this is all well and good when the global economy is functioning as normal, but it seems critically short-sighted now that certain countries have been forced to reduce their economic activity drastically.
We’re only a few weeks into the current crisis, so we’ve probably only just begun to see serious changes in the availability of certain consumer goods (namely cleaning and medical supplies). But even this quick recap already makes me think that the supermarket as we know it is an historical aberration, fuelled by an astonishingly short-sighted and precarious global economic arrangement.
Coronavirus is spreading rapidly across the world. For humans, this means: standstill, pause, so that the spread is slowed down. The crisis is currently changing our lives to an extent that we have never experienced before. Emily Schlickman, assistant professor of landscape architecture and environmental design at the University of California, Davis reports on how the lockdown and the stay-at-home-orders are having an impact on urban life in Davis, California. The Golden State is on pause.
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On March 17th seven million people were ordered to shelter-in-place in the state of California.
On March 18th that number tripled to 21 million.
On March 19th it became 40 million.
Today, every resident of California is required to stay at home indefinitely, as there is no official termination date for the order. Exceptions to the mandate include residents working in “critical infrastructure sectors”, as defined by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and residents embarking on “essential” errands like grocery shopping, caring for a loved one, or accessing healthcare. Residents can still go outside, but must stay at least six feet away from others.
Do we know how wide this hurricane really is?
This tactic, one of the strongest in the United States, is a last ditch effort to flatten the curve in a state where COVID-19 has been projected to potentially infect 56% of residents over the course of just eight weeks. Many have compared this anxious waiting period to the brace of an impending hurricane, but perhaps this analogy isn’t quite right. Do we know how wide this hurricane really is? Do we know its average wind speed? Do we know where the “eye” is? Or if an “eye” even exists? For the most part, this is an invisible storm and it has already made landfall, lurking in our communities far longer than we even know.
So what are the urban implications of this pandemic pause? Here, in Davis, California, a college town located between San Francisco and Sacramento, real-time data to help answer this question is hard to come by. But we do have a few clues.
Physically on pause
En route to a pharmacy a few days ago, I snapped some photos of the city as it was bracing for the unknown. The images that came from this exercise are only remarkable in what is missing from their frames: social life. The city had not only metaphorically and legally paused, it had paused physically. This is what I observed.
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Buses that typically carry over 50 passengers per hour, had only one or two riders. Downtown parking lots that are often at capacity, were more than 75% vacant. Bike counters were registering just 25% of a typical daily tally, bike racks were empty, and shared bikes had completely disappeared (I found out later that they had been pulled from the streets for fear of contributing to the spread). I saw just one Uber, which, after a quick check on my phone, was one of two car-share vehicles in the city. About 70% of the downtown businesses had closed their doors. The rest had turned over their furniture to deter people from lingering. In the pharmacy, many of the shelves were empty. All antibacterial soap, hand sanitizer and toilet paper were out of stock.
Davis, like many other communities across California, is unaware of what the next few days, weeks, or months might bring. In the meantime, we will remain on pause.
Seven months later … still on pause
The COVID-19 pandemic has spread rapidly across California. Experts say the true number of people infected is unknown and likely much higher than official tallies. Currently, the number of infected persons is 919,930, almost one million.
After a fitful start, California has increased coronavirus testing in the state. Over the last week, an average of 133,997 tests have been conducted each day. (Source: Los Angeles Times)
There is still no normal situation as before the pandemic in sight. The number of daily new infections is still very high. At the same time, pressure on the government is increasing due to the precarious economic situation of restaurants and cultural sites.
The Department of Public Health is working with the restaurant industry to develop health and safety guidelines for the reopening. California has established color-coded tiers for reopening. San Francisco is now in the red zone, the second most-restricted tier, indicating transmission of the virus is substantial. City officials said restaurants can reopen for indoor dining when cities move into the less-restrictive orange tier. (Source: Los Angeles Times)
