Post-Pandemic Urbanism: Towards Breathing Cities

The COVID-19 pandemic urges us to rethink the way we plan our cities. At first instance this new planning regime seems to regulate and contain more strict directives than before. Responses to the virus lead to cities that are disformed, grappling with the rigid demarcations that suddenly shape public space. The main question not answered is how to plan for a city that prevents new pandemics from impacting the urban society, even not turning into pandemics in the first place. This paper investigates the mechanisms that prevent urban lockdowns, instead giving space to safe and healthy urban environments. The key features of such urbanisation are open green-blue spaces, smart ventilation at regional urban scale and urban forestry. In this paper the problems surrounding pandemics for urban planning and design are `analysed, the concept of the Breathing City will be introduced and post-pandemic urbanism examples of the Breathing City in The Netherlands and Australia will exemplify this concept.