Doha: Qatar University Press (QU Press) has recently released a new book entitled “Features of housing and residential neighbourhoods in the post-COVID era” by Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning and consultant in the Urban Planning Department at the Ministry of Municipality, Dr. Ali Abdul Rauf.
It is the first book in Arabic that deals with the topic of Arab and Gulf cities in the face of multiple challenges in how to formulate and plan urbanism to become more humane and safer cities from a health and environmental point of view post-COVID-19.
The new book addresses the challenges of urban planning, especially as the pandemic develops into an urban crisis, which makes us reconsider the good shape of the city and the purpose of planning, and the pandemic provides an opportunity to reconsider the priorities of urban planning in the post-pandemic world.
The book deals with several research questions, starting with what are the lessons learned from the pre-COVID-19 pandemic; how can we expect cities to recover once the pandemic reaches its peak; is there a model for a city that resists the pandemic; how does the pandemic relate to issues of scale, urban size, social justice and resilience; when we are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic or crises, emergency changes and escalating threats, should planners focus only on the physical form (size, shape, structure, density) and physical elements of the city such as infrastructure, buildings and open spaces only or should they also work on the economy, society, culture, governance and politics; what types of urban innovation can we expect, or promote, based on the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
