COVID-19: The New Normal ou la vie après

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«Car une chose est sûre: personne ne souhaite retourner aux partitions de 72 pouces de haut des anciennes stations de travail. Et s’il y a une chose que devrait permettre cette pandémie, c’est de remettre le bien-être des employés dans l’ordre des priorités de l’entreprise!»

Elle est déconnectée elle. Les gens détestent tellement les aires ouvertes que les cibicules reviennent cet automne dans nos locaux après 3 ans de plaintes des aires ouvertes.  Il y a des centaines d'études à ce sujet.

 

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La pandémie pourrait bien changer la vie dans les grandes villes

[[Transports / Urbanisme]

Photo: Jacques Nadeau Archives Le Devoir À Griffintown et dans d’autres secteurs urbains densément habités, la COVID-19 exerce des pressions sur la vie citadine tout en exacerbant les inégalités sociales déjà existantes.

Giuseppe Valiante - La Presse canadienne

10 mai 2020

Transports / Urbanisme

La densité du quartier ouvrier montréalais de Griffintown a déjà fait l’objet d’une étude réputée publiée en 1897.

Le livre intitulé The City Below the Hill (« La Ville au pied de la montagne ») avait été rédigé par l’homme d’affaires et philanthrope Herbert Ames. Il a influencé des générations d’urbanistes qui cherchaient à faire progresser des villes saines.

Selon des universitaires, ce livre démontre comment l’essor des villes a été étroitement lié à la gestion des épidémies qui les ont frappées au cours de leur histoire.

Plus de 120 après la publication de cet essai, le quartier de Griffintown s’est transformé. Il est devenu prospère, il s’est embourgeoisé, accueillant des tours à condos. Mais à Griffintown et dans d’autres secteurs urbains densément habités, la COVID-19 exerce des pressions sur la vie citadine tout en exacerbant les inégalités sociales déjà existantes.

Pour plusieurs acteurs du milieu de la construction et des promoteurs de Montréal, la reprise des activités dès lundi signifie que tout revient à la normale dans des quartiers comme Griffintown. Ils sont persuadés que le marché restera solide.

Tous les urbanistes n’en sont pas si sûrs. La pandémie actuelle modifiera l’aspect des villes, prédisent-ils. Les maladies infectieuses ont souvent influencé le développement des centres urbains au cours des décennies passées.

Les petits apparts, moins populaires ?

La façon dont les villes vont changer n’est pas encore claire, mais Andy Yan, directeur du programme des études urbaines à l’Université Simon Fraser, en Colombie-Britannique, croit que la maladie incitera les gens à reconsidérer leur décision d’emménager dans des petits appartements.

M. Yan cite à cet effet des données de Statistique Canada révélant que de 1991 à 2017, la surface habitable médiane des condos avait respectivement diminué de 32 % et de 20 % à Toronto et à Vancouver.

« L’idée en vogue était : si on vit dans un petit espace, on profitera d’une grande vie citadine, explique-t-il. On a emménagé dans des studios exigus, mais on a eu accès à la culture vibrante et aux délices gastronomiques de villes. »

Mais voilà, la COVID-19 renferme les résidents des zones urbaines à l’intérieur de chez eux. Les condos et les appartements se transforment en bureau de substitution, des écoles et des garderies. Et on ne sait pas quand les bistrots, les cafés et les salles de musique, qui forment souvent l’âme des villes, rouvriront.

Professeur d’urbanisme à l’Université McGill, David Wachsmuth rappelle que les villes ont souvent traversé des cycles de densification et de « spatialisation », notamment après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, lorsque le gouvernement fédéral a encouragé les gens à quitter les centres-villes pour les banlieues « plus saines. »

Mais M. Wachsmith ne croit pas à un éventuel exode urbain. « Nous sommes, d’une manière générale, dans une période où la densité des villes a été comprise comme une chose positive. Cela ne changera pas. »

Mais la vie pourrait devenir moins chère en ville, souligne-t-il. Si la pandémie déclenche une longue crise économique, le marché de l’immobilier subira une grande tempête. Les personnes et les familles à faible revenu pourront retourner dans les lieux dont elles avaient été chassées par l’embourgeoisement.

Des logements plus abordables ?

Le p.-d.g. de Royal LePage, Phil Soper, n’y croit pas.

Les ventes de maison ont diminué en avril, fait-il valoir. La baisse s’élève même à 70 % au Québec. Toutefois, un plus petit nombre de maisons sur le marché atténue la pression à la baisse sur les prix.

« La pandémie ne fournit pas de réponse magique aux problèmes de pénurie de logements et, par conséquent, ce n’est pas une baguette magique qui va résoudre les problèmes d’accessibilité du logement », soutient M. Soper.

« La seule chose qui fournira des logements plus abordables dans nos grandes villes est la construction d’unités. Il n’y a certainement pas plus de maisons en construction pendant une pandémie. Cela aggrave le problème », ajoute-t-il

Les principaux constructeurs montréalais ont tous dit à La Presse canadienne que lorsque le secteur reprendra ses activités dans la province, tous les sites qu’ils exploitaient avant la crise seront de nouveau opérationnels

Les condos continuent de se vendre pendant la pandémie, disent-ils. Les acheteurs visitent les unités en 3D sur des écrans d’ordinateur et signent numériquement les documents de vente.

Devimco, la société qui a lancé le renouvellement de Griffintown, vante la Maestria, sa tour de 61 étages qui sera le plus haut immeuble résidentiel de Montréal lorsque les travaux seront terminés. Son vice-président Marco Fontaine dit avoir vendu 20 unités au cours du mois dernier, sans avoir dû en négocier le prix.

« Ce n’est pas du tout dans notre plan pour le moment de baisser les prix », a-t-il déclaré dans une récente interview. Bien qu’il s’attende à une sorte de ralentissement du marché à cause de la pandémie, la reprise économique sera bien lancée lorsque la Maestria sera achevée.

M. Fontaine est bien conscient que de nombreux résidents continueront de travailler de chez eux pendant un certain temps. « Ils habitent un espace qui n’était pas fait pour ça. »

Bien que M. Wachsmuth dit ne pas partager l’optimisme des grands constructeurs montréalais, il parie toujours sur les villes et le sentiment de libération qu’elles procurent. « Il se passe beaucoup de choses, mais on peut aussi y rester anonyme si on le souhaite », lance-t-il.

« [Elles] ne sont pas universellement attrayantes pour tout le monde, mais elles sont, je crois, assez durables pour beaucoup de gens ».

https://www.ledevoir.com/societe/transports-urbanisme/578653/la-pandemie-pourrait-bien-changer-la-vie-dans-les-grandes-villes

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Urban Development

How Will COVID-19 Affect Urban Planning?

By Rogier van den Berg    April 10, 2020   

The fate of millions of small businesses and workers that make urban centers work is up in the air. Kathmandu, Nepal. Photo by Corey O’Hara/iStock

The impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic are still being understood, but it does seem clear that this crisis will make a mark on cities, physically and socially, that will echo for generations.

How we plan our cities has always been a reflection of prevailing cultural and technological trends and even major crises. The cholera epidemics in the 19th century sparked the introduction of modern urban sanitation systems. Housing regulations around light and air were introduced as a measure against respiratory diseases in overcrowded slums in Europe during industrialization. The introduction of railroads had an immense impact on national urban systems, and the mass production of the car has led to cities that bleed seamlessly into sprawling suburbs, creating vast city regions. In recent years, digitalization and data have changed the way we navigate cities and how communities mobilize and advocate for change.

The COVID-19 pandemic has already significantly altered urban life. The number of people moving around has dropped to unprecedentedly low levels. Work from home is the new normal – for those who can afford it, and for whom it’s even a feasible option to begin with. The fate of millions of small businesses and workers that make urban centers work is up in the air.

These changes have sparked a debate about how cities should be built and, perhaps more importantly, how they can better respond to current and future crises. We see five key ways urban planning will be affected in the years to come.

1. Focus on Access to Core Services

The spread of COVID-19 in the world’s most connected urban centers has raised questions about healthy density. Have we become too urban? Most pandemics are inherently “anti-urban,” as The New York Times’ Michael Kimmelman notes. But density is what makes cities work in the first place; it’s a major part of why they are economic, cultural and political powerhouses.

In fact, density is the precondition for effective urban service provision, and far too many people in cities today lack access to basic services, as our World Resources Report, Towards a More Equal City, has explored. It’s the lack of access to essential services such as water, housing and health care, that has exacerbated the challenge of responding effectively to COVID-19 in many cities. Poor access makes lockdown orders impossible to comply with in some places. Closing this urban services divide must be a priority for cities going forward.

Poor access to core services makes lockdown orders impossible to comply with in some places. Kibera, Nairobi. Photo by Schreibkraft/Wikimedia Commons

2. Affordable Housing and Public Spaces

How we plan our cities determines to a large extent how resilient they are. Population density without adequate public spaces or proper affordable housing provision will lead to problems. This was the reason many housing laws and regulations were implemented in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, halting many diseases, for example. COVID-19 may prompt changes too, from temporary measures that make it feasible for people to follow social distancing guidelines to more lasting changes that should focus on improving access to affordable housing and public space like upgrading more informal settlements in place.

Africa, India and South East Asia face the enormous task of shaping the next generation of cities. More than 2.5 billion urban dwellers will be added to the world by 2050, 90% of them in Africa and Asia. It’s estimated 1.2 billion city dwellers lack access to affordable and secure housing today. As it turns, a large share of future growth is going to be unplanned, which could raise this number to as high as 1.6 billion people by just 2025. Change is needed and perhaps COVID-19 will be the wake-up call to get us there.

3. Integrated Green and Blue Spaces

One of the few places that have seen a surge in traffic during COVID-19 lockdowns (at least as long as they remain open) is urban parks. A new approach to city planning should bring open spaces, watersheds, forests and parks into the heart of how we think about and plan our cities.

A more holistic approach to planning that combines gray, green and blue infrastructure supports better health, better water management (flooding contributes to many epidemics and diseases after natural disasters), and climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. Furthermore, larger open spaces within the urban fabric can help cities implement emergency services and evacuation protocols.

We know that cities, often low-lying and flood-prone, will be at the frontlines of climate impacts too. How do we ensure city-region landscapes are more resilient the next time? Chennai, 2015. Photo by Veethika/Wikimedia Commons

4. Increased City-Regional Planning

What happens in cities does not stay in cities. The cascading economic effect of this crisis will impact supply and production chains in surrounding regions and ripple out into global networks too, as we are already seeing. We should learn from this unprecedented disruption to better plan for the next crisis. We know that cities, often low-lying and flood-prone, will be at the frontlines of climate impacts, for example. How do we ensure city-region landscapes are more resilient the next time?

We need more integrated city-regional planning around economies, energy provision, transport networks and food production so that these networks can become pillars of resilience rather than weak points. Such a planning approach will bring a broader and different set of stakeholders to the table, creating a stronger coalition for change.

5. More City-Level, Granular Data

Data is mainly now aggregated at the national level, while many decisions on containment of any epidemic or pandemic are made at the local level. To help cities harness the power of big data – in response to this crisis but also other long-term sustainability and equity challenges – we need to empower cities with more granular, regularly updated data streams that can provide better evidence for decision-making.

Resilience is all about interdependencies. That means that if we keep the data in silos, we cannot track where the pivot points are, and we are not able to take the right measures. Cities should take a cue from South Korea’s data-heavy COVID-19 response, and reach out to community groups, universities, the private sector and concerned citizens to start building more comprehensive, community-based data sets to understand and better address the challenges ahead.

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As lockdowns stretch on in many places, we are only beginning to understand how COVID-19 will affect how we approach urban planning. Planned for properly, density is a good thing for cities, and it will be again. But will we do more to protect the most vulnerable? Will we make cities more resilient to future crises? Will we make green and blue spaces front and center of our infrastructure investments? And will we seriously address the fact that it’s not just physically, but economically, socially and environmentally that cities are connected to their surrounding regions? We will rebuild our crucial economic and social fabric. It’s our decision to rebuild better.

Rogier van den Berg is Director of Urban Development at WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities.

https://thecityfix.com/blog/will-covid-19-affect-urban-planning-rogier-van-den-berg/

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ANALYSIS

How Life in Our Cities Will Look After the Coronavirus Pandemic

The pandemic is transforming urban life. We asked 12 leading global experts in urban planning, policy, history, and health for their predictions.

BY RICHARD FLORIDA, EDWARD GLAESER, MAIMUNAH MOHD SHARIF, KIRAN BEDI, THOMAS J. CAMPANELLA, CHAN HENG CHEE, DAN DOCTOROFF, BRUCE KATZ, REBECCA KATZ, JOEL KOTKIN, ROBERT MUGGAH, JANETTE SADIK-KHAN

MAY 1, 2020, 6:51 PM

BRIAN STAUFFER ILLUSTRATION FOR FOREIGN POLICY

Cities are at the center of this pandemic, as they have been during so many plagues in history. The virus originated in a crowded city in central China. It spread between cities and has taken the most lives in cities. New York has become the world’s saddest, most dismal viral hotspot.

Hunkered down at home, rarely venturing into hauntingly empty streets, most of us are still at a loss at how urban life will look afterwards. Will restaurants survive and jobs come back? Will people still travel in crowded subways? Do we even need office towers when everyone is on Zoom? Come to think of it, the idea of living on a farm seems suddenly attractive.

Cities thrive on the opportunities for work and play, and on the endless variety of available goods and services. If fear of disease becomes the new normal, cities could be in for a bland and antiseptic future, perhaps even a dystopian one. But if the world’s cities find ways to adjust, as they always have in the past, their greatest era may yet lie before them.

To help us make sense of urban life after the pandemic, Foreign Policy asked 12 leading thinkers from around the world to weigh in with their predictions.

Cities Will Survive the Coronavirus

by Richard Florida

Great cities will survive the coronavirus. Cities have been the epicenters of infectious disease since the time of Gilgamesh, and they have always bounced back—often stronger than before. The Black Death decimated cities in Europe during the Middle Ages, and in Asia all the way up to the start of the 20th century. The Spanish Flu of 1918 killed as many as 50 million people worldwide, and yet New York, London, and Paris all boomed in its wake. In fact, history shows that people often moved to cities after pandemics because of the better job opportunities and the higher wages they offered after the sudden drop in population.The crisis may provide a short window for our unaffordable, hypergentrified cities to reset and to reenergize their creative scenes.

Some aspects of our cities and metropolitan areas will be reshaped, depending on how long the current pandemic lasts. Fear of density, and of subways and trains in particular, plus a desire for safer, more private surroundings may pull some toward the suburbs and rural areas. Families with children and the vulnerable, in particular, may trade their city apartments for a house with a backyard. But other forces will push people back toward the great urban centers. Ambitious young people will continue to flock to cities in search of personal and professional opportunities. Artists and musicians may be drawn back by lower rents, thanks to the economic fallout from the virus. The crisis may provide a short window for our unaffordable, hypergentrified cities to reset and to reenergize their creative scenes.

Predictions of the death of cities always follow shocks like this one. But urbanization has always been a greater force than infectious disease.

Looking Beyond the Urban Jobs Armageddon

by Edward Glaeser

Before the coronavirus pandemic, I trusted urban entrepreneurs to create enough service jobs to belie dystopian visions of a robotized economy. The ability to provide pleasure by serving a latte with a smile has long provided a safe haven where the unemployed could find work. But if pandemics become routine, then human interactions will create more fear than joy, and those jobs will vanish.If pandemics become the new normal, then tens of millions of urban service jobs will disappear.

For a blessed century, Western cities have been healthy. We forgot that contagious disease has shaped urban fortunes since the plague of Athens slew Pericles. That safe century saw jobs move from farms to factories to the service sectors that now employ 80 percent of U.S. workers.

In the United States alone, 32 million jobs are in retail, leisure, and hospitality. They are on the front lines of the pandemic. One recent survey found that 70 percent of smaller restaurants expect to be permanently closed if the COVID-19 crisis lasts four months or more. If pandemics become the new normal, then tens of millions of urban service jobs will disappear. The only chance to prevent this labor market Armageddon is to invest billions of dollars intelligently in anti-pandemic health care infrastructure so that this terrible outbreak can remain a one-time aberration.

An Opportunity to Build Back Better

by Robert Muggah

The coronavirus pandemic is transforming city life. It is overwhelming hospitals, demolishing commerce, restricting access to public spaces, straining digital infrastructure, intensifying mental health challenges, and forcing people indoors. In the absence of a vaccine, many of these disruptions could become permanent. Cities were already facing chronic revenue shortfalls and budget deficits before the pandemic. The priority now is to save lives, deliver essential services, and maintain law and order. This is especially important in developing-world cities and informal settlements where rising food prices increase the risk of hunger and social unrest.

City mayors are already revisiting urban plans to prevent the next pandemic.

City mayors are already revisiting urban plans to prevent the next pandemic.

 In the short term, many will introduce mass testing and digital contact tracing, retrofit buildings and public spaces for social distancing, and bolster health systems to deal with future threats. The pandemic is also accelerating deeper, longer-term trends affecting cities, such as the digitalization of retail, the move to a cashless economy, the shift to remote work and virtual delivery of services, and the pedestrianization of streets. Public transit will struggle to retain ridership without social distancing adjustments. Driverless cars and micro-mobility schemes may become increasingly vital.

The pandemic is exposing the quality of governance and scale of inequalities in our global cities. It is also providing an opportunity for urban planners and entrepreneurs to build back better. Some of them are exploring ways to upgrade their zoning and procurement policies to promote smart density and greener investment. Cities are the perfect test beds for new innovations. First movers such as Amsterdam; Bristol, England; and Melbourne, Australia, are already developing plans that prioritize circular economics, climate resilience, and a radical intolerance of inequality.

Hungry for the Simple Joys of City Life

by Thomas J. Campanella

Cities have endured terrible pandemics throughout history, yet they flourished to grow ever larger and denser.

Cities have endured terrible pandemics throughout history, yet they flourished to grow ever larger and denser.

 The feared contraction of urban life after COVID-19 will be temporary at best, even in the United States with its long tradition of anti-urbanism. Cities were often considered corrupting and immoral compared to the countryside—a creed that ultimately gave us suburbia. Even the United States’ first great planned city, Philadelphia, kept the hazards of Old World density at bay with its unusually large original lots. The city’s founder, William Penn, had survived the plague and fire of 1660s London and wanted neither in his city.

The current pandemic is just the latest historical pivot to have pundits predicting the death of the city. During the atomic age, cities suddenly became hot, glowing targets, prompting an urban decentralization movement during the Cold War. To futurists such as Marshall McLuhan, George Gilder, and Alvin Toffler, it was digital communications that would kill the city and lead to a return to rural life by what they called “ultrahigh-abstraction workers”—the very demographic that instead has flocked to San Francisco, New York, and London. The 9/11 attacks prompted obituaries for the skyscraper and Lower Manhattan, neither of which shows any signs of going away.

What will our cities look like after COVID-19? Many of our favorite bars, restaurants, and cafes will be gone, but others will take their place. Elders and the immunocompromised may avoid urban spaces for a time, yielding a temporarily younger, fitter, more risk-tolerant downtown population. And the inevitable lingering fear of infection will be countered by a quarantine rebound effect: People will strain to get out from lockdown, hungry for the simple joys of being in fearless proximity with one another on a busy city street.

Cities Will Excel at Disease Prevention and Response

by Rebecca Katz

The world over, young people have flocked to urban environments in search of work and education, opportunities to interact with others their age, and new experiences in culture and the arts. With the ongoing transmission of the coronavirus—and given our new awareness of the risks of infectious disease—population density has suddenly become less attractive. Shared apartments, which are an affordable launching point for newcomers to experience the breadth of cities, have become claustrophobic under quarantine. At the same time, we have seen the urban rich, who have gentrified city after city, escape to their summer homes. Many of them may recalculate their preferences permanently.While it is impossible to predict what the new normal will be, it may well be reverse urbanization.

Now that so many of us have created new routines working remotely via countless Zoom teleconferences, we may start to see an exodus from the city to more rural environments. While it is impossible to predict what the new normal will be, it may well be reverse urbanization.

Yet we also fully expect that municipal leaders will excel at disease preparedness and response. What was once an underfunded, understaffed area of health departments will become more robust. We will develop best practices for protecting population health in cities, which will help keep urban environments attractive.

We Can Create a Better Urban Future Where No One Is Left Behind

by Maimunah Mohd Sharif

Around 95 percent of people with COVID-19 live in urban areas. This has brought into sharp relief some of the fundamental inequalities at the heart of our towns and cities. COVID-19 will hit the most vulnerable the hardest, including the 1 billion residents of the world’s densely populated informal settlements and slums, as well as other people lacking access to adequate, affordable, and secure housing. Without a house, it is impossible to heed the call to stay at home. Without safe shelter and access to basic services, the order to shelter in place has no meaning.Without safe shelter and access to basic services, the order to shelter in place has no meaning.

This pandemic is already exacerbating the urban divide that has resulted from a long-term failure to address fundamental inequalities and guarantee basic human rights. The post-COVID-19 response will require these failures to be addressed and all urban residents provided with basic services—especially health care and housing—to ensure everyone can live with dignity and be prepared for the next global crisis. Local authorities will have to be the driving force in reducing inequality, supported by national government policies that increase the resilience of cities and their residents. The eternal optimist in me aspires to, and firmly believes in, a better urban future in which no one and no place is left behind.

India’s Cities Will Slow Down, Becoming Cleaner and Less Crowded

by Kiran Bedi

Cities will get less crowded and slow down their pace. Rapid migration from rural to urban areas, like what we have seen in India, cannot continue at the same speed.

Rapid migration from rural to urban areas, like what we have seen in India, cannot continue at the same speed.

 People may start reconsidering agriculture.

Cities will lose part of their variety and public social life. There will be less eating out, more home delivery, and lower consumption of luxuries. Public cinemas will turn into home cinemas. Gyms and hair salons will not be in demand for quite some time, unless good practices of social distancing and hygiene are maintained. Commercial sex will be out of business.

Urban transportation will have to be more personal for reasons of social distancing. Travel will diminish everywhere, and international city-to-city travel will become far more expensive.

The way we work in cities will change. Working from home will be an option, supported by teleconferencing and cloud-based sharing—including in government administration. Office space will come at a much lower rate.

The urban air will be much cleaner, and urban life less expensive.

Create the Safe and Resilient City We’ve Needed All Along

by Janette Sadik-Khan

The road to recovery from this pandemic runs along our streets. We can bring back cities without bringing back the traffic, the congestion, the pollution, and the 1.3 million people who die in traffic crashes every year. We can reclaim and reset our streets to move people by foot, bike, or public transportation—and do it safely, affordably, and easily, no matter where they live in the city. And we have an opportunity to give city residents around the world true transportation independence—real choices for getting around and the freedom not to have to own a car.The pandemic reveals just how much cities depend on essential workers—and how much essential workers depend on public transport.

The pandemic reveals just how much cities depend on essential workers—and how much essential workers depend on public trains and buses to reach jobs at hospitals, grocery stores, and other links in the supply chain. Our ability to endure this pandemic relies on new safety protocols to keep passengers and public transport workers safe, and on investing in extensive service expansions to make the next crisis easier to manage.

This challenge we’re faced with isn’t whether cities will survive as we know them. The question is whether we will have the imagination and vision to transform streets and bring about the safer, more accessible, and more resilient cities we’ve needed all along.

New Institutions Will Bring Back Cities

by Bruce Katz

History teaches us that crises usually bring about new government agencies and institutions.

History teaches us that crises usually bring about new government agencies and institutions.

 The United States created the Department of Homeland Security after the 9/11 attacks and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau following the 2008-2009 housing crash. The coronavirus pandemic is therefore likely to drive institutional change in cities, where new capacities will have to emerge to address economic devastation.

The unprecedented collapse of small businesses, particularly those along commercial corridors in disadvantaged communities and those owned by people of color, will require new public or nonprofit intermediaries to provide services to financially impaired firms and sophisticated training to new entrepreneurs. We already have business incubators and accelerators—what we need now are regenerators. These should ensure access to equity-driven financial products, rather than simply providing more debt. At the same time, public land banks and nonprofit development corporations—which allow land to be pooled and revitalization to be accelerated—will grow in significance. Models such as Copenhagen’s City and Port Development Corporation or Cincinnati’s Center City Development Corporation, long admired but rarely replicated, will be fundamental to urban recovery. Without radical institutional change, the inclusive recovery of cities will be a very long time in coming.

Urban Housing Will Get Cheaper

by Joel Kotkin

Cities will remain critical to human society, but they need to change. The coronavirus and high-density living have gone together from the start—from the pandemic’s genesis in crowded, unsanitary urban China to the much higher rates of hospitalization and death in large cities around the world. The contrast to the less dense hinterland couldn’t be starker, especially in the United States, where New York City has borne the brunt of the pandemic.Answers may include developing personal, autonomous transport systems instead of forcing people into crowded subways.

Answers may include allowing more growth in the periphery, which would require substantial changes in land use and zoning regulations; encouraging remote work where possible; and developing personal, eventually autonomous transport systems instead of forcing people into crowded subways. When cities were afflicted with pandemics in the early 20th century, society responded with de-densification. Manhattan went from a population of nearly 2.5 million in 1920 to 1.5 million in 1970. A similar process occurred in central London and Paris. As more people moved to the periphery, cities got safer and more sanitary. A similar strategy will help us in the future. Some dispersion of the population might also allow jobs to spread out and reduce urban housing costs. The next generation of suburbs, however, will have to be designed for lower emissions, more home-based work, and shorter commutes.

A Wake-Up Call for Cities to Rethink Their Economic Model

by Chan Heng Chee

The coronavirus pandemic has been a wake-up call for cities around the world to rethink urban planning with health security as a top priority. In Singapore, the health system was already reorganized in the wake of the 2003 SARS epidemic, but this coronavirus is different. There are many aspects to health security that pose special challenges for a city lacking a rural hinterland, especially those involving the vulnerability of medical and food supply chains.Many aspects to health security pose special challenges for cities, especially those involving the vulnerability of medical and food supply chains.

Another aspect in a city like Singapore is securing the health of the large population of migrant foreign workers who have helped build and sustain the city. Singapore’s total population is 5.7 million, of which almost 1 million are semi-skilled and unskilled workers, including foreign domestic workers and roughly 300,000 migrant workers, mostly working in construction. Most are housed in mega-sized dormitories. This close communal living, as well as crowded worksites, facilitated the infection of many workers in this pandemic. Post-coronavirus, the design of the dormitories will certainly be revisited and protocols strengthened.

And it is almost certain that the current economic model—one that relies heavily on migrant workers for growth and development—will be rethought. The promotion of technology to increase productivity, long advocated by the government, will be stepped up with a greater urgency to reduce the reliance on manpower for productivity.

We Must Restore Confidence in the Safety of Dense Living

by Dan Doctoroff

Cities will come back stronger than ever after the pandemic.

Cities will come back stronger than ever after the pandemic.

 But when they do, it will be driven by a new model of growth that emphasizes inclusivity, sustainability, and economic opportunity. Even before the crisis, urban communities around the world were demanding lower costs of living and stronger plans to tackle climate change. Some unaffordable cities, such as New York, were even seeing residents leave town.

Reviving urban population growth after the pandemic will start with restoring confidence in urban public health and in the safety of dense living. But when people do return to cities—as they always have in the past—we must leverage new policies and technologies to make urban life more affordable and sustainable for more people.

Cheaper, more flexible building methods such as tall timber construction can lower the cost of housing and dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of new buildings. New mobility options and public transit extensions can help residents reach jobs without needing to own a car. Energy innovations can enable all-electric neighborhoods that reduce their climate impact without utility bills that break the bank.

If we take this opportunity to build better, cities will not just recover but provide greater opportunities than they did before the coronavirus struck.

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How the Economy Will Look After the Coronavirus Pandemic

The pandemic will change the economic and financial order forever. We asked nine leading global thinkers for their predictions.

Richard Florida is a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, a fellow at New York University, a co-founder of CityLab, and the author of The Rise of the Creative Class and The New Urban Crisis.

Edward Glaeser is a professor of economics at Harvard University and the author of Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier.

Maimunah Mohd Sharif is the executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme.

Kiran Bedi is the lieutenant governor of Puducherry, India. She was the first woman in the Indian Police Service and served as an inspector general of the Delhi prisons.

Thomas J. Campanella is an associate professor of city planning and the director of the Urban and Regional Studies Program at Cornell University. He is the author of Brooklyn: The Once and Future City.

Chan Heng Chee is a professor at Singapore University of Technology and Design and the chair of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities.

Dan Doctoroff is the CEO of Sidewalk Labs and a former deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding of New York City.

Bruce Katz is the founding director of the Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University.

Rebecca Katz is a professor at Georgetown University Medical Center, where she directs the Center for Global Health Science and Security.

Joel Kotkin is a fellow at Chapman University, the executive director of the Urban Reform Institute, and the author of The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class.

Robert Muggah is the founder of the Igarapé Institute and SecDev Group. He is the author (with Ian Goldin) of Terra Incognita: 100 Maps to Survive the Next 100 Years, to be published in August 2020 by Penguin.

Janette Sadik-Khan is a principal at Bloomberg Associates. From 2007 to 2013, she was the commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/01/future-of-cities-urban-life-after-coronavirus-pandemic/

[IluvMTL]

The Pandemic Will Lead to the Revival of Main Street Retail

05/13/2020The Dirt Contributor

Petoskey, Michigan / Robert Gibbs

By Robert Gibbs, FASLA

Since the earliest human settlements, the retail experience has evolved to meet the needs of the public. This evolution has taken us from rural markets to towns, cities, suburban shopping malls, big box mega stores, and, more recently, the Internet. But what will retail shopping look like once COVID-19 lock downs are over and people return to the wild for their shopping experiences?

When all the dust settles, the post-pandemic era should provide a boost to downtown areas, in part due to newly unemployed but highly skilled restaurant and retail workers opening new businesses in downtowns where rent prices will trend downward.

The pandemic has left millions of highly skilled workers from the retail and food and beverage industries unemployed and eager to work. Many of these people are highly motivated to start their own businesses, creating an unparalleled pool of talent and potential entrepreneurial interest.

In a recent Forbes article, Bernhard Schroeder wrote: “27 million working-age Americans, nearly 14 percent, are starting or running new businesses. And Millennials and Gen-Z are driving higher interest in entrepreneurship as 51 percent of the working population now believes that there are actually good opportunities to start companies.”

Traditionally, fear of failure has held people back from starting a business, but with so many having their jobs swept away due to the pandemic, that fear is gone for many people, who realize they no longer want to rely on an employer for the rest of their careers, and instead want to take on the challenge of leading their own companies.

Main Streets will capture traffic from fading malls

Malls will struggle in the wake of COVID-19. Being inside an enclosed bubble will not be the ideal situation for most shoppers for the foreseeable future. Morning Consult reports that 24 percent of U.S. consumers fear shopping in malls for at least the next six months due to the COVID-19 threat.

As an article about a newly reopened mall in Atlanta explains, the experience won’t be very welcoming in the near term. Play areas are roped off, water fountains covered, and stores are limiting the number of shoppers due to social distancing. Add in the inconvenience factor, and it’s clear why so many malls are facing a reckoning in the coming years.

As regional malls continue losing consumers due to changing shopping habits and fears of COVID-19, an excellent opportunity presents itself for villages, towns, and cities to regain their dominance as thriving centers for retail and entertainment.

Some factors to consider:

As Millennials and Empty Nesters seek to live, work, and shop in urban centers, medium-sized cities (100,000 to 200,000 population) are especially likely to benefit from this trend.

Small towns (10,000 to 20,000 people) located near large urban centers are also appealing to start-up retailers and restaurants that want to take advantage of their proximity to large, well-heeled populations and small towns’ affordable commercial storefronts.

New walkable town centers — planned with authentic urbanism and a variety of hospitality, employment and residential land use — can also ride the wave of Millennials, young families, and Empty Nesters who seek an exciting place to hang out.

Main Streets are already innovating

Main Streets have been reinventing themselves in a positive way during the past few decades, making them a more attractive alternative for retail shopping in the era of COVID-19.

These innovations include:

Updated master plans that undo blight caused by 1970s urban renewal plans.

Implementation of Downtown Development Districts, which offer marketing, promotions, special events, street cleaning, landscaping, flowers and private-sector levels of management.

Effective parking management, and construction of new parking lots and garages.

Investment in beautiful new streetscapes, public art, and street furnishings.

Reduction of crime, increased safety.

U.S. Main Street programs, which offers guidance to revitalize downtowns, and returns $36 for each $1 invested.

For Millennials, who seek more social experiences as opposed to the enclosed mall experience of their youth, Main Street experiences in their towns and cities are the perfect fit for their lifestyle.

While the larger portion of their income will go to experiences such as European travel or outdoor adventures, closer-to-home visits to a local brewpub or coffee shop in their town center make perfect sense.

Main Streets will provide new homes for mall stores

As malls close and online shopping grows, existing mall retailers will seek new locations near their former mall stores. In many instances, these venues include smaller downtown cores, which traditionally offer lower rents and, now, the safety of an open-air shopping experience.

The writing is on the wall for mall store operators, all of which leads to an economically-friendly, Main Street setting:

Malls depend on department stores to attract almost 50 percent of their shoppers and cannot operate without them, which is problematic for many reasons.

Many mall retailers have lease options allowing them to break their leases and leave the mall should key department stores close.

Department stores are losing market share, from a peak of 50 percent of all retail sales in the 1950s to 5 percent today.

Since the heyday of malls in 1992, department store sales have dropped from $230 billion to $140 billion and many department stores are close to bankruptcy.

Over 50 percent of regional malls are forecast to close by 2025 (Credit Suisse).

Retail and office space will move to town centers

The online shopping boom has made nearly obsolete many of the conventional large power center retailers offering products such as books, electronics, office supplies, sporting goods, and toys. The end result is the expected closing of millions of square feet of retail space.

Often, these centers cover typically 20-50 acres of prime real estate, which presents an opportunity. They can be converted into mixed-use town centers with medium density residential and commercial occupants.

The same can be said of suburban office parks, as even centers in blue-chip locations are facing high vacancies and declining rents as many major corporations are moving into city centers to attract top talent. Millennials find the suburban office parks boring, preferring to live and work in downtowns. These large office parks have an abundance of land and parking that can be retrofitted into walkable mixed-use town centers.

Main Streets offer many benefits, including reduced risk of exposure to COVID-19

When a national brand relocates from a mall environment to a town or city, they may initially receive a cold shoulder from city leaders and the community, who fear popular brands will end up killing their beloved Main Street’s unique charm.

Looking back at history, though, this thinking is inaccurate, as downtown shopping districts were filled with leading retailers and large department stores during their 1950s heyday. For long-term sustainability, a downtown should always offer the goods and services desired by its residents and workers, which may include popular brand names.

Zoning is another key battle. Cities must offer flexible form-based zoning to allow for medium-to-high densities of residential and commercial to be developed as walkable neighborhoods and business districts. Development standards should focus on requiring quality design and materials, rather than arbitrary minimal units per acre densities, minimal parking ratios, or suburban building setbacks.

Parking needs to be reconfigured to allow shoppers to pickup goods curbside.

Downtowns and open-air town centers are seen as safer from the pandemic than enclosed malls, as they offer:

Safer environments.

Wider spaces.

Less-enclosed spaces, with more fresh air and direct sunlight.

The ability to walk on other side of street or block.

No elevators or escalators.

Fewer doors to enter.

Curbside pick-up of goods.

People enjoy visiting towns and cities to socialize and experience parks, urban life, including storefronts. They visit to have an experience they cannot get through online shopping. And while visiting downtowns for entertainment and fun, many will walk by store fronts and be tempted to make impulse purchases from Main Street retailers.

Inviting storefront that provides a unique shopping experience in Nantucket, MA / Robert Gibbs

Ralph Lauren shop in Southhampton, NY / Robert Gibbs

Shoppers in Naples, Florida / Robert Gibbs

Towns and small city landlords typically offer much cheaper rents than suburban malls, often more than 50 percent less, and also offer flexible lease terms: no minimum hours and less rigorous storefront and merchandising standards than mall leases. This type of accommodation will be more attractive to new entrepreneurs created from this pandemic.

The savings also are appealing to national retailers facing declining sales and mall leases that are too expensive.

How downtown Main Streets can ensure success

As we look to the future, and the economic recovery that will come after the COVID-19 pandemic comes to an end, all signs point to the re-emergence of Main Street as the place people will want to do their retail shopping.

A new generation of entrepreneurs will be eager to start a new chapter in their life, and the suburban shopping centers are not going to attract them.

Well-designed town centers, with the type of social interaction sought by Millennials, young families, and Empty Nesters will be the new home for the post-pandemic boom in the years to come.

King Street in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia / Robert Gibbs

A few best practices for downtowns to apply:

Create a marketing strategy for a post-pandemic campaign.

Beautify the public realm through landscape, lighting, parking lots-garages, signage, streetscape, and storefront improvements.

Explore temporary commercial street closures to allow for open air dining and shopping spaces.

Modify zoning to allow first floor office and service business.

Require store fronts to maintain large clear glazing, sign bands, operating doors, and ceiling heights to allow for future retail or restaurant use.

Remove or reduce minimum retail and restaurant parking requirements in downtowns and new mixed-use developments.

Include generous 10-minute parking spaces to accommodate curbside pickups for restaurants and retailers.

Devise market-based business recruitment plans and resources to identify and attract new retailers and restaurants into the downtown.

Seek a balance of local, regional, and national retailers.

Apply flexible zoning to promote medium-density and high-density multi-family residential.

Implement market based master plans, form-based codes, and zoning flexibility to allow for retrofitting of underutilized shopping centers and office parks.

Robert Gibbs, FASLA, is president of the Gibbs Planning Group, which has advised and planned commercial areas in some 500 town centers and historic cities in the U.S. and abroad. Gibbs is a charter member of the Congress for New Urbanism, a lecturer at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, author of Principles of Urban Retail Planning and Development, and co-author of eight books.

https://dirt.asla.org/2020/05/13/the-pandemic-will-lead-to-a-revitalization-of-main-street-retail/

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L'après-COVID-19 : « Une occasion sans précédent de réinventer nos villes »

L'ancienne patronne des transports de New York affirme qu'après la pandémie, le statu quo n'est plus possible.

Janette Sadik-Khan, ancienne commissaire aux Transports de la ville de New York.

Photo :  Olugbenro Photography

Étienne Leblanc (accéder à la page de l'auteur)Étienne Leblanc

Publié à 4 h 01

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1702735/apres-covid-19-coronavirus-villes-avenir-demain-reinventer-repenser-villes

L'ex-commissaire aux transports sous l’administration Bloomberg, Janette Sadik-Khan, est une vedette mondiale de l'urbanisme. Sous son règne, la métropole américaine s'est transformée. Selon elle, les villes qui sortiront les plus fortes de la crise de la COVID-19 seront celles qui auront su réinventer l'espace offert aux citadins. Nous l'avons jointe à New York.

Qu'est-ce que la crise de la COVID-19 change pour les villes?

Cette crise nous touche jusque dans nos tripes. Elle affecte chaque aspect de notre vie. C'est une crise sanitaire doublée d'une crise économique mondiale qui frappe tout le monde. Je n'ai qu'à sortir de mon immeuble pour en voir les effets, parce que nos rues sont devenues silencieuses!

Mais ce qui me frappe, c'est que tout ce que nous tenions pour acquis, comme travailler dans un bureau, aller faire les courses, aller au restaurant ou prendre le métro… Tous ces gestes impliquent un partage de l'espace avec d'autres personnes. C'est le fondement même de nos sociétés.

Cette pandémie se présente donc comme un énorme défi, mais elle nous offre aussi une occasion sans précédent de réinventer la ville, de changer de trajectoire, de réparer les dégâts du passé provoqués par la congestion routière et la pollution de l'air… De revoir l'espace gaspillé.

Premier texte d'une série de trois sur l'avenir des villes dans l'après-COVID-19.

On fait ça de quelle façon?

Avec les voitures qui sont absentes de nos rues, on peut enfin voir tout l'espace qui leur est réservé par rapport au reste. On voit enfin toutes les possibilités qui s'offrent à nous et qui étaient cachées par toute cette circulation. Les rues désertes actuellement nous montrent ce qui serait possible : des trottoirs beaucoup plus larges, des pistes cyclables et des voies réservées pour les autobus, des espaces pour les piétons.

Ça ne coûte pas cher de démarrer le mouvement. On peut bouger très vite avec de la peinture au sol, des pots de végétation ou des petites bornes escamotables. Il faut d'abord montrer aux gens ce qui est possible.

Times Square à New York pendant la pandémie de la COVID-19.

Photo : Associated Press / Seth Wenig

Il y a dix ans quand j'étais commissaire aux Transports à New York, ouvrir les rues pour les piétons était une idée perçue comme radicale! Quand nous avons fermé la rue Broadway à la hauteur de Times Square, ça a fait la une des journaux pendant des semaines. Aujourd'hui, des centaines de villes dans le monde créent des espaces sans voitures. Ce n'est même pas une position politique, c'est tout simplement parce que des rues mieux aménagées sont bonnes pour les affaires!

Le statu quo n'est plus possible! Les villes qui profitent de cette crise pour repenser leurs espaces publics seront non seulement celles qui vont s'en remettre, mais ce seront celles qui vont prospérer après la crise.

Janette Sadik-Khan, ancienne commissaire aux Transports de la ville de New York (à gauche) avec l'ancien maire de la ville, Michael Bloomberg (centre).

Photo : Associated Press / Richard Drew

Comment peut-on adapter nos villes aux nouvelles normes de distanciation physique?

C'est un beau défi. On a l'impression que plus rien ne sera normal. Mais souvenez-vous de ce qu'on disait après la dernière grande crise mondiale que nous avons vécue, les attaques terroristes du 11 septembre 2001. On disait que les gens ne prendraient plus jamais l'avion, que les gens refuseraient d'habiter dans des gratte-ciel, etc. La vie a repris normalement parce que nous avons mis en place un nouveau protocole pour qu'on puisse prendre l'avion de façon sécuritaire.

Il est nécessaire aujourd'hui de réfléchir à un nouveau protocole, à de nouveaux codes pour baliser notre présence dans la rue et nous aider à mieux mettre en pratique la distanciation physique sécuritaire. Nous avons besoin de la même chose pour les transports en commun!

Nous pouvons mettre en place des protocoles pour le nettoyage des autobus, des voitures de métro, des tourniquets, des lecteurs à puce pour les cartes, etc. Nous sommes capables de faire ça! Et c'est important que nous le fassions, pour que les gens retrouvent la confiance dans l'espace public.

On a l'impression que, depuis quelques années, les citoyens et les décideurs politiques étaient plus conscients de l'importance d'un bon réseau de transport en commun dans les villes. Puis est arrivée cette pandémie. Comment les transports en commun vont-ils s'en sortir après tout ça?

Il n'y a quasiment personne sur les quais.

Photo : Radio-Canada / Ivanoh Demers

Ils vont bien s'en sortir. Il n'y a pas d'autres choix. Les transports en commun sont l'avenir des villes. On ne sortira pas de cette crise en reprenant de plus belle le volant de nos voitures. La voiture n'est pas l'avenir de la ville, il n'y aura jamais assez d'argent pour faire plus de routes, jamais assez de places de stationnement, jamais assez de rues… Il n'y a tout simplement pas assez de villes pour que tout le monde puisse s'y rendre en voiture!

Il vous sera impossible d'éviter une congestion croissante. Au final, en comptant sur la voiture, c'est comme de renégocier sans cesse les termes de sa propre capitulation.

En ce moment, en l'absence de circulation, les endroits où on pourrait créer sans délai des voies pour un service rapide par bus [SRB] sont mis au jour. Ce moyen de transport est tellement rapide et facile, il peut déplacer tellement de monde en peu de temps, c'est comme un métro en surface. Aujourd'hui, avec les rues vides, on voit ce qui est possible… Ce qu'on ne voyait pas parce que c'était caché par la circulation.

Janette Sadik-Khan, ancienne commissaire aux Transports de la ville de New York, en compagnie du rappeur américain Jay-Z.

Photo : Associated Press / BEBETO MATTHEWS

Il est beaucoup question de télétravail actuellement… Et on sent aussi que les gens cherchent à avoir plus d'espace. Quel est le risque qu'il y ait un nouvel exode vers la banlieue?

Il y aurait peut-être un peu de ça, mais ça fait des décennies qu'on prédit la mort des villes…

Les villes sont résilientes, elles sont toujours revenues en force. Mais justement, c'est pour ça qu'il faut offrir aux citadins l'espace approprié. Des espaces bien aménagés où les gens pourront aller travailler, faire leurs courses ou se détendre en toute sécurité. Je suis persuadée que l'avenir des villes est reluisant. Mais nous sommes à un moment charnière qui nous donne une occasion unique de réinventer nos rues à tous les niveaux.

Les villes qui vont s'en sortir le mieux sont celles qui vont permettre de ne pas avoir de voiture pour se déplacer. Celles qui vont offrir de l'espace. Tout ce qui incite les gens à marcher ou à prendre le vélo en ces temps de pandémie sera là après : ce sont des moyens de transport résilients, fiables et très abordables, qui nous permettent de garder une distance physique avec les autres.

C'était vrai avant la pandémie et ce sera vrai après. Les villes qui priorisent ces transports auront une longueur d'avance sur les autres dans ce nouvel ordre mondial.

Quelles villes vous inspirent en ce moment?

La ville de Milan en Italie a aménagé de nouvelles pistes cyclables pour faciliter les déplacements pendant la crise de la COVID-19.

Photo : Reuters / Daniele Mascolo

La ville de Milan, en Italie, qui était l'épicentre de la crise, nous montre ce qui est possible quand on pose les bons gestes. Elle nous fait une démonstration magistrale de ce qu'il faut faire pour ne pas revenir à ce qui ne fonctionnait pas avant la crise.

Faire des pistes cyclables et élargir des trottoirs du jour au lendemain, ce sont des stratégies accessibles à toutes les villes. Elles doivent profiter de cette crise pour faire les changements qu'elles voulaient faire. Le plan qui était prévu pour 2030 est maintenant celui de 2020!

Des villes comme Amsterdam ou Copenhague ont profité de la grande crise du pétrole dans les années 70 pour se transformer. On peut faire la même chose... Faire les changements nécessaires pour construire les villes qu'on veut vraiment avoir.

Il y a des kilomètres et des kilomètres de rues disponibles. Assez pour qu'on puisse y marcher et y pédaler de façon sécuritaire. Ces rues seront là pour nous au-delà de la pandémie. Parce que des rues qui sont bien conçues pour marcher, pour pédaler ou pour le transport en commun sont meilleures pour l'économie, et meilleures pour la planète.

Étienne Leblanc (accéder à la page de l'auteur)

[IluvMTL]

VIE AU TRAVAIL

L’AIRE OUVERTE N’A PAS DIT SON DERNIER MOT

ISABELLE MASSÉLA PRESSE

La COVID-19 sonnera-t-elle le glas des bureaux à aire ouverte ? Non, répondent des architectes et entrepreneurs. Mais elle transformera les façons de travailler.

En ces temps de COVID-19, on imagine des travailleurs et employeurs qui ont vu les murs de leur bureau disparaître, ces dernières années, prier pour le retour des cloisons et des corridors. Un éventuel retour dans leurs espaces laissés vacants depuis la mi-mars cause des craintes et des questionnements. Mais de là à dire que les organisations qui ont dépensé jusqu’à des millions pour des aménagements à aire ouverte voudront tout raser… « Il ne faut pas oublier les raisons pour lesquelles on a décloisonné, dit Maxime Frappier, architecte associé et président d’ACDF Architecture. C’était plus hiérarchisé. On voulait que ce soit plus humain. L’aire ouverte a contribué à des synergies et à l’apprentissage. »

Pour la plupart des dirigeants et experts en aménagement interviewés par La Presse, le virus ne sonne pas le glas de l’aire ouverte. D’abord pour une question financière. Mais aussi parce que la proposition d’un tel environnement de travail s’est accompagnée d’une façon de travailler renouvelée, depuis une décennie. « L’aire ouverte fait plein de sens pour nous », raconte Louis-Thomas Labbé, président et chef de la direction de GPL Assurance, qui a fait tomber les murs de ses bureaux de Montréal et de Laval ces trois dernières années. « C’est plus efficace au pied carré. Dans l’industrie du savoir, le partage de connaissances est important. Les gens sont placés par petits groupes. Pour de l’intimité, les employés vont dans de petites salles. Certains sont sur la route, vont dans des congrès. Leur bureau sert 60 % du temps. Je ne pense pas que ça va partir. »

Les locaux et la façon de les habiter devront néanmoins se transformer pour le court terme.

« Le virus annonce un frein à la densification effrénée des aires ouvertes. Au benching [longues tables] aussi. »

— Vincent Hauspy, designer associé de la firme Provencher Roy

Le mobilier sera mieux pensé pour la quiétude au travail. « Le concept du “hot seat” va changer, dit Maxime Frappier. Voudra-t-on s’asseoir sur un siège occupé la veille par quelqu’un d’autre ? Les gens préféreront contrôler leur espace. »

Daniel Pelletier, président et chef de la direction d’Artopex, prévoit des modifications dans la taille des bureaux individuels, leur surface (« plus lisse »), leur écran de protection (« plus haut ») et dans la quantité de tissus « pour accroître l’efficacité des nettoyages et désinfectants », explique-t-il.

Bref, on risque de s’attarder davantage au contenu du bureau qu’à sa coquille, car la situation extrême l’oblige et qu’elle vient, selon toute logique, avec une date de péremption. « C’est temporaire », dit Sandrine Tremblay, cofondatrice et associée de la firme Mile Wright, spécialisée en droit des affaires. « Ces dernières années, on a vu des Banque Nationale et Deloitte adopter l’aire ouverte. Je ne pense donc pas qu’on va revoir un modèle apprécié parce qu’on vit une situation de force majeure. »

« Isoler les gens avec des murs et des cloisons n’est pas la solution, dit aussi Louis Lemay, président de la firme d’architecture Lemay. Les gens ne réinvestiront pas massivement dans de nouveaux bureaux, ne feront pas des changements radicaux. À la fin de la pandémie, on reviendra rapidement à la normale. »

VERS UN MODÈLE HYBRIDE

Pour l’instant, on s’en remet au télétravail, qui fait ses preuves en matière d’efficacité et de productivité, et à ce qu’il en adviendra une fois la pandémie chose du passé. « On a 130 employés en télétravail depuis mars, raconte Louis-Thomas Labbé. Zoom, ça marche ! Personne ne s’ennuie de faire une heure d’auto chaque jour. Dans l’éventualité où on ferait une acquisition, je resterais avec le même nombre de pieds carrés. On planifie un retour au bureau, mais on a dit aux employés qu’on ne forcerait personne à revenir. »

« Les employés sont heureux à distance. Ils ont hâte de se voir, mais adorent le télétravail. Il y aura un équilibre à atteindre. D’après moi, ce sera 75 % de télétravail et 25 % de bureau. »

— Charles Lalumière, président d’Edge Future, spécialiste en téléprésence

Voyant tous les avantages du télétravail, soutenu par des technologies accessibles, certains disent ne plus vouloir de bureaux. « On réfléchissait à un aménagement à aire ouverte », raconte Yanouk Poirier, président du réseau Penrhyn International et associé de la firme de recrutement Leaders International, qui n’a pas renouvelé le bail qu’il occupait dans la Tour CIBC à Montréal. « C’est fini, l’aire ouverte avec la COVID ! Ça nous force plutôt à être à jour sur le plan de la techno. Le retour sur l’investissement est important. On est en train de se réinventer. »

On reconnaît toutefois que le télétravail a ses limites. « Ça ne remplacera pas la richesse des relations humaines, dit Louis Lemay. Le lieu physique ne partira donc pas. Ce serait comme emprisonner les gens chez eux. Mais il faudra offrir le choix. On va voir une grande accélération des méthodes de travail. »

« Je fais cinq à six heures de vidéoconférences par jour, admet Charles Lalumière. Mais il faut dire aux gens de sortir et bouger. C’est tellement productif qu’on peut les brûler. C’est pénible de n’être que dans le virtuel. »

L’IMPORTANCE DU PORT D’ATTACHE

Des salariés pourraient-ils forcer leur employeur à revoir en profondeur les espaces de travail, en invoquant des questions de sécurité, sous peine de ne pas rentrer au bureau ? « Oui, répond Sandrine Tremblay. L’obligation de l’employeur est d’assurer la santé et la sécurité de ses employés. Dans la mesure où un employé sent que l’employeur n’en a pas fait assez, ce dernier doit le rencontrer pour savoir pourquoi il n’est pas à l’aise. On peut demander qu’un inspecteur de la CNESST vienne sur place et évalue les mesures mises en place. »

« L’employeur n’a pas d’obligations de donner un espace X à son employé », précise par ailleurs Sandrine Tremblay.

L’humain étant un animal social, il finit très vite par s’ennuyer de son clan. « Il y aura plus de travail à la maison, mais on ne pourra soutenir ça longtemps, pense Maxime Frappier. Ce sera important d’avoir un port d’attache. La proximité demeurera importante. »

« Cette pandémie est terrible, dit Vincent Hauspy. Mais comme disait Winston Churchill : Never let a good crisis go to waste. On a une opportunité de revoir comment les bureaux fonctionnent. »

https://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/14a96f69-8e1d-47c1-93b1-2b0527534a8c__7C___0.html?fbclid=IwAR3M6CAFo39-hMxaxkwBcOz5BnQuXkxGTh1pqQDGmDiEvl06uerIXzwZb9o

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Perso, un des problèmes des aires ouvertes ou je travaille c'est leur densité. J'aime bien les aires ouvertes des bibliothèques. Elles sont souvent plus libérales dans leur utilisation de l'espace.

[vanylapep]

Est-ce que ça vaut la peine de tout changer demême pour un virus qui n'est pas si.. mortel qu'on le pensait?

Une des choses principales que je peux voir qui pourrait être changé c'est; si t'es malade, reste chez vous.

Avant le Covid, les gens allaient au boulot avec leur rhume. Post Covid, j'espère qu'on serait plus lousse sur les journées maladies.

[ToxiK]

il y a 1 minute, vanylapep a dit :

Est-ce que ça vaut la peine de tout changer demême pour un virus qui n'est pas si.. mortel qu'on le pensait?

Les changements pour l'avenir ne concernent pas uniquement ce virus mais aussi tous les autres, surtout ceux qui seront beaucoup plus mortels.