F E AT U R E By Michael Cowdy and Fraser Halliday
Post-COVID-19: a bio urban future McGregor Coxall has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Shenzhen, London and Bristol. Two of its practitioners offer an international perspective on tackling the pandemic.
1
U
ntil only recently, the sudden and radical transformation of our daily routines seemed unfathomable. Many of the protective measures introduced in lockdowns globally have challenged the very essence of urban lifestyles, planning, governance, conservation and management. And while we can only speculate upon the longlasting repercussions sweeping our social, economic and political spheres, we can anticipate that like 38
many pandemics before, COVID-19 presents an opportunity to accelerate progressive changes to cities’ open space models, as well as stimulate investment into the conservation of our wild areas. The former is required to address the weakness in our physical and social infrastructure exposed during lock down, whereas the latter is essential to prevent further habitat destruction and the multibillion-dollar international wildlife trade, which, according to the WWF, is the cause of emerging
zoonotic infectious diseases. And more worryingly, since February this year, environmental agencies have reported an uptake in deforestation as well as increases in poaching, animal trafficking and illegal mining worldwide, the consequences of opportunists expanding their activities and taking advantage of diminished forest monitoring and government presence. Therefore, it is critical to recognise that conservation and city planning are absolutely interlinked. The challenge we face is ensuring governments and
1. Bio Urbanism Systems Diagram. Š McGregor Coxall
