Strategies for Post-COVID Cities: An Insight to Paris En Commun and Milano 2020

In recent times, many infectious diseases have been spreading at an increasing scale and frequency. There is a common agreement in the literature that our cities should be prepared in the future to react promptly to epidemics, but the way in which this preparedness should be shaped is still an open question. This study aims to introduce a series of factors that should be taken into consideration in building a working framework to define and evaluate strategies for post-COVID cities. Through the use of the mutual learning methodology, this contribution draws on the concept of the epidemic prevention area (EPA) defined by the International Council on Monuments and Sites-China, in collaboration with other institutions, as an urban responding system to the COVID-19 epidemic, extracting its main factors and comparing them with two European post-COVID urban strategies: The Paris en Commun and Milano 2020. Research findings highlight that three factors—decentralization of facilities, hierarchization of the transport system and public services, and redundancy of public and semipublic functions—appeared to be particularly relevant in post-COVID cities, to promptly face future epidemic events, while improving their quality, equity, and resilience.