Medical Utopia: Designing cities to protect against diseases like swine flu

No doubt that if you have consumed any amount of media in the last 48 hours you are aware of the swine flu.  It is, as well it should be, a growing concern.  And something to think about seriously (the smart people/people who work on things like this for a living have been doing so for a while now re: avian flu).

Snarkmarket points to a thought provoking post at BLDGBLOG that combines a cadre of interests on this blog: medicine/public health/urban planning/design/the future.  Number 10 from This Diseased Utopia: 10 Thoughts on Swine Flu and the City:

In the end, then, what spatial form might a medical utopia take, and how could it be architecturally realized?
In 50 years will you be walking around the edges of the city with your grandkids when one of them asks: Why are these buildings out here, so far away from the rest?

And you’ll say: They’re here because of swine flu: we redesigned the city and our diseases went away.