Ken Fallas

Nature does not negotiate, and COVID-19 proved it by triggering a real-time experiment on a self-confined civilization trying to cope with its effects over our most densely inhabited environments: cities. Just within weeks, South Korea shifted the world's attention from its "Parasite" film's satire on urban social inequality and modern isolation, to become one of the most virus-affected territories, ending up as a top reference on flattening the curve. Yet, Korean cities' resiliency did not only rely on a trace, test and treat system, but on an emerging technology-based and human centered urbanism. This article aims to analyze the South Korean urban experiences which allowed them to overcome the current crisis and how this can guide the way for other cities in the post-COVID world.

Nature does not negotiate, and COVID-19 proved it by triggering a real-time experiment on a self-confined civilization trying to cope with its effects over our most densely inhabited environments: cities. Just within weeks, South Korea shifted the world’s attention from its “Parasite” film’s satire on urban social inequality and modern isolation, to become one of the most virus-affected territories, ending up as a top reference on flattening the curve. Yet, Korean cities’ resiliency did not only rely on a trace, test and treat system, but on an emerging technology-based and human centered urbanism. This article aims to analyze the South Korean urban experiences which allowed them to overcome the current crisis and how this can guide the way for other cities in the post-COVID world.

This research paper was submitted and included in the "December 2016 KIEAE Autumn Annual Conference on Ecological Environment Journal" (2016년도 한국생태환경건축학회 추계학술발표대회 논문집 제16권 제2호 통권 31호). It presented the current condition of energy consumption in the Republic of Costa Rica since its achievement of more than 100 days running only with renewable energy.

During centuries, architecture was considered a health discipline, by the XX century when, influenced by outbreaks of diseases such as tuberculosis —and the way they were the results of the fast urbanization and the ―bad air‖ that came with it— when architects offered health solutions by providing a change of environment through smooth surfaces, big windows, and terraces to facilitate taking the sun and fresh-air as means to fight the disease. However, as the South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han has proposed, every century has its signature affliction, —and each affliction has its architecture—. If the age of bacterial and viral diseases gave birth to modern architecture then the turn of the twenty-first century is the age of neurological disorders and burnout. Just within weeks South Korea shifted the world‘s attention from its Parasite film‘s satirical criticism on urban social inequality, to detecting its first infection and soon becoming the most affected territory outside China, to end up as one of the top success references on flattening the curve with virtually no lockdown and reduced economic impact. COVID-19 set an unprecedented experiment that unmasked these very same vulnerabilities featured in the film's narrative, but especially the important link between the ways our living spaces influence our health. This influence has been amplified since the only tool initially available that cities had for confronting the virus spread was to introduce restriction of movement and lockdowns, forcing the population to a confinement that put once again our homes as the center of all activity: a place where we work, learn, rest, dwell and even die. However, this confinement effect varies considerably since the places we all live in are very different, especially for most vulnerable groups of population that are not able to work from home or have no access to technologic connectivity. The pandemic exposed that quarantines are not a new phenomenon since our current urban living paradigm has been producing a systematic isolation, but especially that inadequate —and unequal— access by low income and vulnerable groups to good quality spaces are having a deep impact on their well-being. This paper will analyze the progress made by Korean cities towards the improvement of housing models for low income groups, and how access to good quality urban spaces became a crucial element for building up resilience against this crisis, and as we move into a recovery stage influenced by the uncertainty of a post-covid world, these models can provide new opportunities for architecture, interior design and urbanism professionals to reconsider design as a health discipline that provides all of the population with the mental and physical wellbeing benefits in relation to the spaces they inhabit. The Korean comprehensive approach can provide some examples not only as preparation for future pandemics, but for responding to other urgent issues such as climate change and urban inequality that cannot be avoided any longer

No matter whether it comes by divine wrath, nuclear war, climate change, zombies, a pandemic or by machines rebellion: the apocalypse will be urban. Cities are at the same time the most complex and valuable creation of our civilization, but also one of the most vulnerable environments to inhabit during an apocalyptic crisis. However, can they also be the key to our salvation? Either a fictional or part-real apocalypse, the delirium of destination has been a constant in many societies, but nature does not negotiate and with more than 50% of the world population living in cities, the current pandemic located them as main subjects in a real-time experiment of values collapse. What made some cities so resilient while others suffered the most impact? Just within weeks, South Korea shifted the world’s attention from its Parasite (2019) film’s satirical criticism on urban social inequality, to detecting its first COVID-19 infection and soon becoming the most affected territory outside China, to end up as one of the top success references on how to confront a crisis of this magnitude especially through the use of urban infrastructures, smart systems and efficient governance tools. But Korean cities were not new to the idea of fighting a ―world-ender‖ enemy; from the North Korean war threat, to natural disaster stories such as Haeundae (2009), infection chaos in Gamgi (2013), to zombies invasion on Train to Busan (2016), Kingdom (2019), and Peninsula (2020), the increasing trend on catastrophic narratives has evolved though Korean culture beyond just entertainment, to become an open source to explore human reactions under extreme circumstances, our capabilities and reasons to survive. This presentation aims to explore the Korean vision on apocalypses and how its cities may have a valuable approach for planning our new world especially in the fight against inequality