Transformation of Public Spaces Through Emergency Urbanism: Lessons from Toronto, Recife, and New York

This chapter presents a comparative analysis of urbanUrban interventions involving the use of public spacesPublic space that took place during the pandemicPandemic from May 2020 to July 2021 in TorontoToronto(CanadaCanada), RecifeRecife(BrazilBrazil), and New YorkNew York (USA). The identification and analysis of these transformations can contribute to the constitution of different regulations and urbanUrban plans, which go beyond the context of pandemicsPandemic, supporting sustainable urbanism practices essential to the (re)balance of the ecosystem currently threatened by the appearance and proliferation of the coronavirusCoronavirusdiseaseDisease (COVID-19). The interventions observed in each city are based on the following conceptual foundations: principles of sustainable urbanism; research on the use of open spaces versus the detriment of closed spaces during the pandemicPandemic; recommendations and data from the World Health OrganizationWorld Health Organization; and definitions on tactical urbanismTactical urbanism, and emergency urbanismEmergency urbanism. The analysis presented here focuses on practices of tactile urbanism (or “placemaking” or emergency urbanism), the understanding of the need for paradigm shifts for the use of public spacesPublic space in the face of the COVID-19 pandemicCovid-19 pandemic, and the urgency to present urban actions in response to the new restrictions imposed. For this purpose, the following ways of using the cityCities were observed: circulation, permanence, and commerce. It is argued that these three levels of action, acting together, generate conditions for the use of public spacePublic space that strengthen the practice of sustainable urbanism in contemporary times.