URBAN SPACE AND DENSITY lessons from the pandemic

Abstract

From times to times, the discussion of density in cities reappear in the wide field of urban studies. It seems that there is never a consensus about it: is density bad, as is a certain spreading of the population in peripheric regions of the city? Or, on the contrary, is density a welcome condition to build urbanity? In the context of the coronavirus pandemic, early in 2020, the discussion came back to the fore. Density was then seen as the origins of all evils as it disfavoured social distancing. But density is not that, not necessarily. This is what will be discussed in this essay.