Le rôle de l'architecte dans une épidémie

Throughout history, architects have been working towards the improvement of the cities’

architecture whether at a private building scale or through a whole urban plan.

Today we are surrounded by facts showing the impact and insurgence of climate change. In a society

where money and business take over the necessary elements of survival, we can ask ourselves how the

architects can help shape the world of tomorrow. In this essay, we will question their role facing

global or local epidemics, regarding the current situation of Covid-19.

What can we learn from those events and how could one interpret such circumstances as a failure of

our current planning ? This subject will be explored in two folds.

In a first part we will look at how epidemics affected the architecture in Europe from the beginning of

the 18th century.

Secondly, we will look at the current facts regarding climate change, Sars-covid-2 and the architects

response. From that, we will be able to establish a list of points, which are primordial in architecture,

to ensure both prevention and proper response to such event in the future.

At the beginning of the 19th century, cities in Western Europe were industrialised thanks to the

invention of the steam engine (end of the 18th century), which spread and accelerated from the 1840s

onwards due to the development of the railway network.

The organization of the territory is being redefined. We are witnessing a rural exodus and a

demographic growth that is causing very strong urbanization. Industrial cities develop with their ports,

stations and suburbs. The regions where steel and textile production is concentrated around coal

deposits, with high population densities, are called "black countries" because of the landscapes

blackened by coal fumes. In 1810, the imperial decree “The report on Manufactures and Workshops”-

that described an unhealthy or unpleasant odour- appears and raises the question of the removal of

unhealthy industrial activity away from habitations. In Paris, the policy was to relocate industries, but

in the large provincial cities, the choice was that of industrial reinforcement. This was one of the first

steps towards the reorganization of infrastructures for the health of the people.

During the second half of the 19th century and until the beginning of the 20th century, European cities

saw their population increase. The popular districts became more and more dense. The

industrialisation of the cities and the rural exodus resulted in the anarchic development of the suburbs.

There, the newcomers where crowded together in miserable living conditions, with only one or two

rooms per family. Plus, they were working up to 14 hours a day, without social protection, comfort or

security. Following those living conditions and lack of hygiene, these cities have been the scene of a

succession of epidemic diseases.

In the 19th century, tuberculosis, known as the "white plague", was responsible for one death in seven

in Europe. In France, the great Cholera epidemic of 1932 claimed 100,000 victims, including 19,000

victims in six months in Paris. In London an epidemic of Cholera broke out in 1854 causing the death

of more than 600 people within a few days. In less than a century, Europe was struck with at least 3

major epidemics leading to numerous deaths.

In light of those events, scientists and doctors launched the debate on urban living conditions. The

insalubrity of both housing and cities were criticized and suspected to be hotbeds of infections. A

rational approach in the inventory of the causes of epidemics, habitat-related diseases, pollution and

lack of hygiene is implemented. The medical discoveries of Pasteur and Koch show the influence of

air and light on the tuberculosis bacillus and highlight sunlight as a microbicidal factor1

. The cholera

epidemic in London leads to John Snow's discovery of the transmission of cholera through

contaminated water. This marks the beginning of the social, political, medical and urban hygiene

movement.

A major planning policy based on hygienic theories allows the development of sewerage systems,

wastewater treatment, waste collection, ventilation and natural lighting in housing. One of the most

edifying examples of the application of this current of thought is the intervention of Prefect

Haussmann in Paris. In 1852, at the advent of the Second Empire, Paris was as it was in the Middle

Ages. The streets were still incredibly as tortuous, dark, unsafe and had a high lack of hygiene (waste

and waste water were thrown directly on the ground like they did centuries before).

A campaign entitled "Paris embellished, Paris enlarged, Paris cleaned up" was launched with the

stated objective of cleaning up the city, modernising communication systems, improving train arrivals

and making the city safer. But this project took on a monumental scale. Cleaning up Paris required 18

years of work. The expropriation and demolition

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