As new co-chairs of the Global Practice Network at Boston Society for Architecture, Junko Yamamoto and Yuan Zhang are starting a new virtual program this Thursday (April 23rd, 2020). Their first kick-off event is on the topic of the pandemic, inviting a diverse group of practitioners from US, Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand, Bangladesh, Iran, Ghana, Algeria, Italy, Spain, and Brazil. The guest speaker is Professor Elvis Garcia, who is teaching the timely subject of epidemic and public health at Harvard Graduate School of Design. Andrea Panizzo, Co-Founder of EVA Studio based in UK, will introduce his research on Social-Bridging, which will be presented in more detail in the next event.

(post by Junko Yamamoto) The situations at hospitals are heartbreaking. Many healthcare design experts in Boston have actively been meeting and discussing the ways of converting healthcare and non-healthcare buildings and providing temporary facilities to treat infected patients. But for most of us, the best thing we can do is to stay put - stay home and work from home, running the daily lives as normally as we could.
The question is, what are we learning? What can we do as architects, meaning those who are not healthcare-design experts? How might this influence the discourse around architecture and urban planning in the future? Is this another one of the environmental crises that architects should address, like Climate Change? I believe that every crisis is an opportunity to learn, whatever the scale it may be, and this should also be one.
Since our WFH started, I feel that we are ever more connected in a strange way. As we can still use our brain, computer, and the internet during the quarantine, I think that the virtual program is a good way to kick off the Global Practice Network meeting. To me, discussing is better than not discussing, and I hope our conversations would help us make productive and well-informed contributions in whatever forms in each one's expertise in the future.

At the Global Practice Network, we want to invite a variety of practitioners across disciplines and geographies to share knowledge, exchange thoughts, ideas, and experiences, and showcase various projects. We want the exposure to broader perspective and diverse voices, not only from the communities of the Greater Boston area but also from other parts of the world. But first, please join us on Thursday.

LET’S TALK! -- Design Meets Diseases across Geographies
A virtual discussion hosted by the BSA Global Practice Network
April 23rd, Thursday, 12:00pm - 13:30pm EST.

PROGRAM (4/23 Thursday, 12:00 - 13:30 EST)
1. Talk - Could design be the missing link to deal with epidemics?
By Elvis Garcia, DrPH, MEng, March. Lecturer at GSD

2. Voice Exchange - Design Solutions and Challenges
A panel of designers with different cultural backgrounds will share their thoughts and observations, as well as initiatives in which they are involved.

Panelists: Elvis Garcia, Andrea Panizzo, Marysol Rivas Brito, Naureen Mazumdar, Nawal Benneouala, Mac Sarbah, Ponnapa Prakkamakul, Sae Kim, Tina Binazir, Takafumi Inoue (participants are originally from US, Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand, Bangladesh, Iran, Ghana, Algeria, Italy, Spain, and Brazil)

3. Wrap-up Discussion

4. Intro to Next Event
Andrea Panizzo, ARB, RIBA, Co-Founder of EVA Studio
Momoyo Kaijima, Atelier BowWow(tentatively in May 2020)

Registration required — RSVP: https://www.architects.org/…/virtual-global-practice-networ…