Session 9 / Chicago Live Program: Covid-19 Conscious Neighborhood & Public Space

Josh Sirefman
Senior Advisor and Co-Founder
Sidewalk Labs, New York City

What lessons can be taken from the Sidewalk Labs Toronto project, and applied today, as our cities look to adjust to the new crisis of a health pandemic, while still positioning for sustainable, healthy growth in an era of climate change? Cities will need to redouble their commitment to usable, flexible green space, to the use of sustainable design materials that also carry health benefits (such as timber), and to smart technologies that can help optimize the urban environment, as well as the environment inside our buildings. We will need to rethink how public transportation and public space are organized, offering mobility as a service and streets that are rapidly configurable to accommodate changing usage requirements.

To get there, we will need software models that can provide high-fidelity representation of how the city functions, assess the impacts of development scenarios, and build consensus within the community. With artificial intelligence, we can monitor physical spaces and deliver a public realm that is usable as often as possible, and most importantly, that is comfortable and safe.