Ja118, Winter 2020: Place + Urbanism City: Designed by Crisis

- The issue reflects on the history of the many crises that humanity and cities have experienced, and reviews what we -- both humans and cities -- have gained as a result - Explores how diseases such as plague, smallpox, cholera, and influenza have promoted the development of scientific medicine, while cities have adopted new sanitation technologies and spatial norms. And infrastructural technologies and types of spatial order have boosted our resilience and redundancy against natural disasters such as typhoons, earthquakes, and floods JA118 features Place+Urbanism series titled City: Designed by Crisis. In 2020, the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are truly facing a global crisis. At the same time, the digitization of society is accelerating, remote work arrangements are becoming more prevalent, and the urban landscape is also showing signs of change. Humanity has repeatedly faced a variety of global crises over the years. Each time, we have generated new wisdom to overcome these crises, changed our social systems, and reshaped our cities. We have also managed to overcome the worsening of poverty, traffic accidents, and environmental pollution caused by war and economic depression by building mutual support systems and creating new spatial configuration for cities. In this issue, we look back at the history of the many crises that humanity and cities have experienced, and review what we -- both humans and cities -- have gained as a result. Text in English and Japanese.