The IHBC’s heritage business register HESPR – our Historic Environment Service Providers Recognition quality assurance scheme for heritage services working to the IHBC’s standards – emails members weekly ‘News and Tender Alerts’, including notices gleaned from across the development sector’s publications, and for this week features a call for submissions on ‘Pandemic Urbanism’ – ‘to talk about and understand what pandemics do to cities’ – from MONU magazine on urbanism, closing 30 June.
MONU writes:
When in 2009 Jacob Ross Boswell, in his article ’Dystopic Verdure’ in MONU #11 on ’Clean Urbanism’, introduced the topic of diseases, such as malaria, cholera, tuberculosis, yellow fever, and typhus etc, and how they had impacted urban landscapes and the shape of cities in the past, we were very intrigued and considered dedicating an entire issue on this topic. Particularly fascinating were his elaborations on how, by the second half of the 19th Century, urban designers and landscape architects such as Daniel Burnham, Frederick Law Olmsted, and a host of other architects, planners, and landscape architects collaborated with medical colleagues like Chicago’s John Rauch in reshaping American cities: broadening streets and boulevards to allow for more sanitary air flow, moving pestilential cemeteries and dumps to the fringes of the city, carving out, reclaiming, or simply seizing land for America’s first great urban parks, such as New York’s Central Park. However, in the end we abandoned the idea to create an entire MONU issue on the relation between diseases and cities, since it seemed to us as something that belonged to the past only.
However, since the recent outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic with which the entire world struggles currently, there does not seem to be a theme that is more present than discussing the consequences of diseases – and in particular infectious and contagious diseases – for cities. Thus, we deem it necessary, important, and urgently relevant to initiate a reflection on ‘Pandemic Urbanism’…
Thus, with this new issue of MONU on ‘Pandemic Urbanism’ we would like to talk about and understand what pandemics do to cities, whether today or in the past, analyse and interpret their urban impacts, but come up with new ideas for cities and buildings too that improve our dealings with the current coronavirus pandemic and with pandemics in general. Additionally, we are also interested in all those stories and narratives that have taken place and continue to happen in our cities – such as rock stars giving private concerts from home, communal clapping on rooftops, the all day long wearing of pyjamas and tracksuits, to name just a few – that contribute to happy days despite – or especially due to – these weird times. In order to think about all of this, with this new open call for submissions for MONU #33 on ’Pandemic Urbanism’ we invite you to submit historical documentation, spatial descriptions, reflective analysis, bright understanding, brave forecasts, daring visions, creative solutions, captivating design proposals, problem-solving projects, hypnotising narratives and striking photography and illustrations. Abstracts of around 400 words, and images and illustrations in low resolution, should be sent, together with a short biography and a list of publications, as one single pdf-file that is not bigger than 1mb to info@monu-magazine.com before June 30, 2020. MONU’s autumn issue #33 will be published in October 2020.
For more on HESPR and how to become a HESPR member see hespr.ihbc.org.uk
For a free promotion of your tendering opportunities and work needs to the IHBC’s HESPR members, please send details and links to Joanna at contact@ihbc.org.uk, as soon as possible.
Tenders can also be advertised for a fee with IHBC Jobs etc, including a targeted email to 2000+ recipients as well as full coverage on our NewsBlog alerts and social platforms (membership and followers c.18,000) and websites with c. 290,000 visits a month. Contact Joanna at contact@ihbc.org.uk
