Trend Watch October 2020

Norman Foster on the Pandemic Impact:

Though everything currently seems different, in the long term rather than changing anything, Covid-19 will accelerate and magnify trends already in place, the well-known British architect writes for the Guardian.

Throughout history the crises of the day have hastened the arrival of the day’s solutions – fireproof buildings, sewage systems, green parks, the automobile, he writes.

We should not expect our future to be two-metre distancing – “The last major pandemic of 1918-20 created deserted city centres, face masks, lockdowns and quarantines. But it also heralded the social and cultural revolution of the 1920s with newly built gathering spaces: department stores, cinemas and stadiums.

“What might be the equivalent hallmarks of our coming age, after Covid-19?”

See the article, The Pandemic will Accelerate the Evolution of Our Cities.

Image: Norman Foster’s illustration on the future of cities, to be exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Outdoor Dining in NYC Becomes Permanent:

The New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, has made the Open Restaurants Program, which allows restaurants in the city to extend seating onto streets, sidewalks and public spaces, permanent following the coronavirus pandemic.

First temporarily initiated in June to allow restaurants to continue doing business while adhering to social distancing restrictions, the programme will now be a year-round fixture.

The scheme includes provision for extending onto sidewalks and roadways, or onto adjacent outdoor spaces with neighbours consent, heating during winter and building tents.

Three or more restaurants on a street that is closed to traffic can also apply together to expand outdoors in another option known as Open Streets: Restaurants.

Read the full story on Dezeen.

Photo: Larry D. Moore, Wikimedia Commons.