Design Thinking VS Corona virus. Girl with a mask – Photo by David Shakelford.
Corona Virus – As the Corona virus outbreaks urbanists, architects and designers reflect on how ‘design thinking’ and new technologies can contribute to better design, build and manage cities in times of emergency.
- RELATED STORIES: read more about in impact of the infection on an architecture and design perspective.
Washington Post and Fortune chief economic correspondent from Asia Clay Chandler writes on Fortune that:
“Design is about more than creating beautiful objects. We’ve embraced the broad notion of design that includes “design thinking,” the use of empathy, brainstorming, prototyping, testing, and other techniques to solve practical problems in areas not traditionally associated with design.”
Their contribution can range from rethinking the healthcare system and organise and build cities more efficiently manageable also in terms of hygiene and safety, develop new technologies able to monitor and map realtime data on urban population and even help scientists and public health officials to communicate information about the geography of the disease, how it spreads, and how to stop it through graphic design.
Unfortunately, concludes Chandler, design thinking’s methods aren’t widely understood in China.
“Beijing tends to prefer solutions that involve top-down edict and central control rather than “empathy” and “ideation.” The Wuhan outbreak, and China’s struggle to contain it, demonstrates the need for a different approach.”
Meanwhile in Wuhan, 1m people thriving metropolis on the Yangtze river where the infection started, 1m people thriving metropolis on the Yangtze river has quarantined the whole city in an effort to contain the outbreak. Wuhan braces for the most ambitious lockdown in history of human civilization: emergency hospitals and facilities are being build in record times and streets have become surreal. Find out more.
Wuhan in Lockdown.
