- [Jaden] This is the city of the future.
Well, it's a hypothetical one,
and this is me Jaden in cartoon form.
I wanted to understand how COVID-19
is reshaping the city around me,
because right now my office
is sitting mostly empty,
shops are closing or
struggling to survive,
and any plans I had for
live events are put on hold.
So I did some research
to try to understand
which changes will outlast the pandemic.
Experts paint a picture
of a new daily routine
that looks more like this.
I split my working hours
between my apartment and office,
where I have to reserve a desk
from my phone ahead of time.
I pick my groceries up
from a local corner shop
on my way home, and order
my dinner off a digital menu
from a nearby restaurant.
As the cities around us
undergo a transformation,
the future is being
refocused on health, tech
and open spaces, but will that be enough
for cities to thrive again?
To understand just how
big of a turning point
this pandemic is for our cities,
we need to look to health
crises of the past.
More people live in
cities than ever before
with nearly 70% of the
world expected to live
in an urban area by 2050.
But, what makes cities
so successful as cultural
and financial hubs,
also makes them a hotbed
for spreading diseases.
And the way cities have responded
to the spread of diseases
throughout history, have
had lasting impacts.
Just take this medieval
city that was built
to quarantine traders and travelers
as the bubonic plague spread
across 14th century Europe,
or how New York city's
overheating problem today
has been attributed to
the Spanish flu epidemic
when radiators were made hot enough,
so people could keep their
windows open in the winter
to get fresh air.
- Well say you go back another century
in the 19th century with London,
it helped to improve
sanitation conditions,
and I think that large shocks are always
a cause of things to change.
- [Jaden] That's Nayan
Parekh, she's a principal
at Genzler architecture firm in Singapore,
and she thinks a lot about
how design can reshape cities.
COVID-19 began at spread in
an industrial city in China.
From there, the pandemic
has moved from city to city
and across entire countries.
So Nayan says that after the pandemic
we'll have to make some big adjustments,
let's start here with how we work.
I typically used to work in an office
and governments are recommending
others like me stagger
their shift times if they can.
- We're probably going
to see a mindset shift
in terms of the way people are
thinking about the work day,
especially because of the commute density
during those peak times.
- [Jaden] Future me
works 11:00 am to 7:00 Pm
while others on my team
spread their shifts out,
starting as early as 6:00 am.
The idea is that staggered
shifts can reduce crowding
on public transit and in
the office as companies try
to resume working there.
Morgan Stanley for example,
is aiming to get about half
of its employees back
in the office by 2021.
But like many other companies,
their work might not be
limited to the office anymore.
One survey found that 60%
of corporate real estate
professionals expect remote work
to remain an option after the pandemic.
So, I might do my first
couple hours of work from home
or walk to a nearby coffee shop.
Around 1:00 pm before
heading into the office,
I'll have to check a
dedicated workplace app
to make sure there's space for
my colleagues and I to meet.
- I think we're gonna start seeing
a huge acceleration, almost
using your phone if you like
as a digital concierge
as you access the space.
We might see more
integrated booking systems,
so the way you book say your meeting room,
you might have to book
a desk in the future.
- [Jaden] Once I'm in the
Office, there are fewer cubicles,
more meeting spaces, open
windows and touchless technology
that gets rid of having to touch things
like elevator buttons or soap dispensers.
Of course not everyone who lives in a city
works in a big office.
And not every business can afford
to invest in these smart technologies.
- I think that the conversation
around kind of smart cities,
the conversation around more data
to check health and wellness,
all of these come from
a really good place,
but good start creating really,
really dangerous divides
that exacerbates the
haves of the have-nots.
- [Jaden] There's a whole
range of occupations
from healthcare workers
to teachers or servers
that can't really be done from a cafe
or modern office buildings.
Many of the jobs that
can't be done remotely
are in the service industry,
where many jobs have
also been lost overnight.
Take retailers for example.
- You're seeing that if you don't invest
as a personal shopper in
kind of what's immediately
around you, it's not gonna
be immediately around you,
which means your neighborhood
is totally gonna change.
- [Jaden] One research
firm, estimates that as many
as 25,000 US stores could
permanently close in 2020.
The pandemic has made online shopping,
not just more convenient,
but necessary as people try
to reduce going out, and brick
and mortar retailers need
to make big changes to survive.
The future might look
like me adding clothes
to an online shopping cart to pick up
and try on in a physical
store, or experiential stores
that use brick and mortar as
more of a branding opportunity,
like House of Vans, or Taobao
- We did a Taobao store
in China pre COVID,
it was completely online store
and they started creating
physical presence just
to build that sense of
kind of brand connection.
So I feel more and more
stores would be more
about brand connection
rather than full on stores.
- [Jaden] And then there's
the 15-minute city a concept
that's being discussed around the world.
The idea is that everything
I need like groceries,
parks and schools, are all
within a short walk of my home
and cities are already
transforming their streets
to help people avoid public transit
by widening sidewalks
and adding bike lanes.
So after I finish up work around seven,
I might walk down to a local boutique
and browse handmade products.
Or stop at a street market to pick up
locally grown produce.
Many experts agreed that
the city center will still
be the place to go for
shopping, and for a night out.
More businesses like dine-in
cinemas are merging retail
with entertainment, and arts and culture
is big business in many cities.
In New York city,
performing arts brought in
nearly $2 billion in the 2018, 19 season.
- I think entertainment
really needs footfall.
And so there's a kind of economic argument
for the city still being
the cultural center
when you're kind of
buying into entertainment,
you also want to see other
people that are kind of part of
that experience with you.
- [Jaden] Those shared
experiences will probably utilize
more outdoor space, with
the help of technology.
Like when I go out to eat.
- Smart data that can help
with maybe extending restaurant areas
into streets after rush hours,
because it's reading traffic,
those kinds of things I think
can really come to fruition.
- [Jaden] And when I
meet up with some friends
to go to a big outdoor concert,
we might use our phones to guide us
through a touch free checking process,
and navigate the least crowded
routes through the venue.
- For example, today, if
you go into any building
in Beijing or Shanghai, you
have air quality Monitors
because there's an
expectation that the building
will have healthy air because outside
the air is not so healthy.
That expectation and has created the need
for those monitors, and
I think in a same way,
there'll be certain expectations
that people want to see
what's going on in terms of hygiene
and buildings in the future.
- [Jaden] So will these changes be enough
to still make people Want to
live in cities in the future?
During lockdowns more spacious
suburbs or the countryside
have started to look more
attractive for some people.
But cities have proven
resilient in the past.
- I feel like that that's kind of a dream
that a lot of urban residents have,
which when actually
realized isn't as fulfilling
as the kind of diversity
and craziness you get
of bumping into people in a dense city.
- [Jaden] Life in cities
probably won't return to exactly
how it was before the pandemic.
My journey in this city shows a future
that could be a lot more
digitally integrated, cleaner,
and less crowded than before.
(soft upbeat music)
