The Early of Cities after COVID-19

Abstract

The early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak can trace back to late December 2019, and
subsequently, the world’s first recorded case was found outside China in Thailand on 13th January 2020. During that time, COVID-19 was classified as an “emerging infectious disease,” and people
were aware of adjusting themselves to cope with the outbreak despite the uncertainties around
guidelines or even medications and treatments were still in trial and error. For urban context, many
thinkers published guidelines on living in urban areas during and after COVID-19 by studying
adaptation lessons from the past pandemics. However, those ideas and recommendations are still
new in human society and scattered in all directions based on individual perspectives and contexts;
therefore, it has not yet crystallised and unified as a concept. This research is the documentary
research compiled and organized different ideas proposed by thinkers during early 2020, from the
early days of the outbreak to lifting lockdowns. These recommendations have not yet been
implemented over the past year. As a result, this research compiled recommendations from various
sources and looked for repeated terms to identify topics recommended by thinkers in the same
direction. The findings conclude on the living patterns of the urban population, urban planning,
and essential components of what the city should be after the pandemic is over. Moreover,
recommendations could be used as guidelines for planning urban development against future
pandemics. For example, issues about the minority groups who are most affected by the pandemic,
the migration from big density cities to medium or small-sized cities with lower density, the workingfrom-
home norm, and changes in public spaces. However, those early stages recommendations
require a follow-up procedure to examine the outcome, including urban dwellers’ behaviors and
urban areas after adapting to the pandemic for a while in order to see a more evident phenomenon.