Living and working in the city after the pandemic: critical analysis of currently acclaimed housing forms and planning principles

The Covid-19 pandemic has had disruptive effects on the ways we live and work in cities. These outcomes have been widely discussed, both in the media and the scientific literature, using various underpinning assumptions and prospective thinking. Both academic and non-academic discourses further tend to support pre-pandemic housing forms and planning principles that are believed to be ideally suited for the so-called ‘post-pandemic’ city. This paper aims to confront these discourses with feedback received from residents living in such idealized live-work environments in Brussels (Belgium) to reflect on their possible relevance for the future. In practice, we identified acclaimed housing forms and planning principles after examining media sources and scientific literature. From there, we conducted a survey in a selection of real estate operations based on a typology of projects and environments to pinpoint first trends in terms of changing housing needs and residential preferences. The combination of the results of the review and the survey allowed us to critically discuss to what extent current housing solutions and planning strategies may foster adequate live-work urban environments and make suggestions for further research on the post-pandemic city.