Part of the "De-Activated City" series.
‘Two Aliens Figuring Out’ is a short graphic novel dedicated to observing our way of living with spaces and their intrinsic impact on our lives. Narrated by an alien couple visiting Earth, these protagonists arrive with limited information but a near inexhaustible line of questioning. From interpreting the complexities brought by urban models to the more mirthful speculating of how dating will evolve, the series aims to encapsulate a selection of the questions normally brought-up during coffee-breaks and family reunions. This instalment aims to speculate how our cities could change in the face of pandemics, from the urban to the architectural and the social.
Among the topics covered is the study of the in-between, what resides between buildings, be it pedestrian paths, roads, high streets, plazas and our parks. Dissecting the street and its possible mutations will help us define “de-activated”. We can do so by looking at the street, the public thoroughfare in a built environment, the parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. Our cities have always, although slowly, evolved with our customs. The marketplace has become the high street, our roads expanded to accommodate traffic, the pockets of space between buildings even being reclaimed by their surrounding users.
Pandemics have established circulation as a much more vital role in urbanization, perhaps more than spaces themselves, especially for the street. Covering a majority of city landscapes, we have slowly lost sense of their importance. Other than the odd street party, they do not serve as spaces for socialising or pedestrian movement, taken over by public/private transport. Our cities might evolve to make better use of these spaces, whether it be for circulation or interaction. Perhaps a parasitic use of infrastructure could help minimize human contact, in the same way as masks and curfews currently do. Streets might need to adapt practically to the context and provide additional functionality during times of pandemic, encouraging vertical circulation.
The rise in remote working would consequently influence how roads could be used, transitioning out of a network mainly used for commuting to work. The graphic novel explores what would be discovered if this pedestrian reclaiming is plausible, especially with the increasing dominance of urban cycling. If we expand now, by the time of the alien’s visit they may observe a different cityscape. One example is the evolution of streets: how an event like the pandemic now informs the direction they would take, and subsequent observations by the aliens paying a visit. In many ways though I wouldn’t see streets as becoming “de-activated” in the sense of ‘not in use,’ but rather returning to their previous way of operating. Cities are in many ways similar to living organisms, they adapt and evolve to its context, although not always harmoniously or timely.
