Cities will endure, but urban design must adapt to coronavirus risks and fears
Silvia Tavares, Author provided
Silvia Tavares, University of the Sunshine Coast and Nicholas Stevens, University of the Sunshine Coast
The long-term impacts of coronavirus on our cities are difficult to predict, but one thing is certain: cities won’t die. Diseases have been hugely influential in shaping our cities, history shows. Cities represent continuity regardless of crises – they endure, adapt and grow. Read more…
Public Microclimates
I have recently published a book chapter entitled ‘Public Microclimates: Thermal Outdoor Expectations in Post-Earthquake Christchurch (New Zealand)’, in the book ‘The Urban Microclimate as Artifact: Towards an Architectural Theory of Thermal Diversity’ by Sascha Roesler and Madlen Kobi. Read more…
Urban comfort in a compact city
Things have been quiet around here as I have been travelling for several weeks, and now I am trying slowly organising ‘normal life’. Even the ‘month in review’ posts, which are so important for me, my sanity and production, and which I hope you also like to read, haven’t been published since October. So I leave a promise here – for you and for me – that the next one, which will be published in the beginning of February, will have a full November, December and January summary. I can assure you some interesting things have happened so far.
Urban Comfort: The physical and social landscape as constituent of the climate experience
I recently published a paper entitled “Urban Comfort: The physical and social landscape as constituent of the climate experience” (original in Portuguese: Conforto Urbano: A paisagem física e social como constituinte da experiência climática) in Cadernos do PROARQ. This is a Brazilian journal published in Portuguse by the Postgraduate Program in Architecture at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Read more…
Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial
On the 22nd February 2011 a large earthquake hit Christchurch (New Zealand). The earthquake took the lives of 185 people and destroyed large parts of the city. Exactly six years later, on the 22 February 2017, the ‘Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial’ was inaugurated. Read more…
A case-based methodology for investigating urban comfort through interpretive research and microclimate analysis in post-earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand
Simon Swaffield, Emma Stewart, and I recently published in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science a paper titled “A case-based methodology for investigating urban comfort through interpretive research and microclimate analysis in post-earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand”. Read more…
SoLA Symposium and the memories of what I have not seen
The relationship with a post-disaster environment is a strange and powerful one. I arrived in Christchurch on the 15th February 2011, exactly one week before the earthquake that would extensively damage the city and its CBD. Read more…
Contribution to the SOLA Research Symposium
The SOLA Research Symposium will take place on the 9th and 10th of November at Lincoln University. The focus of this year’s symposium is the integration of green and grey infrastructures and their potential to contribute to liveable cities.
Professor Simon Swaffield and I have been working on a paper to be presented at the symposium. Read more…
Accessible cities and Christchurch: Moving in opposite directions
Christchurch Central City is largely a one-way system, intended at freeing the traffic and letting it flow. But it has just been decided the Central City is now going to have a speed limit of 30km/h. Read more…
Christchurch Street Art, NZ (2015)
Most of these paintings are part of the Spectrum Street Art, which happened in Christchurch from 14 February to 10 May 2015.
There are many more to be found in the Central City. Read more…
SILVIA TAVARES 