Epidemics and public spaces
June 22, 2020
A documentary produced as part of the Public Renaissance (PURE) international project - in which FBK-ISIG participates - explores the connections between the impact of epidemics and public spaces, comparing past and present, in five European cities.
The project, funded by the HERA consortium and involving, in addition to Fondazione Bruno Kessler, the universities of Exeter, Erlangen, Valencia and Groningen, aims to investigate the formation of public spaces in Renaissance cities and to define their function in both the past and the present urban contexts.
In the time of the Covid-19 emergency, with European streets and squares suddenly emptied of people, the funding agency of the PURE project asked the researchers involved to reflect on the effect that the pandemic had on the central theme of public urban spaces.
Their response is this short documentary that explores the connections between the impact of epidemics and public spaces, comparing past and present, in five European cities, including the city of Trento during the Plague of 1630.
FBK-ISIG is one of the partners of the European consortium and, through its principal investigator Massimo Rospocher, coordinates the section of the project that concerns Italy. “In order to disseminate the results to a wider audience”, Rospocher said, “among the digital outputs of the project in addition to scientific production, a package of apps for smartphones (Hidden Cities) will be developed that allow an immersive experience of some European cities such as Hamburg, Deventer, Exeter, Trento and Valencia, through interactive walking tours. The Hidden Trento app should be available and downloadable for free in the fall of 2020″.
