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Hello, this is Six Minute English from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil.

And I'm Rob.

From the Bubonic Plague to cholera and tuberculosis, disease and pandemics have changed the way cities have been built.

For example, buildings in 19th century Paris were designed with large high up windows to allow plenty of sunlight.

They were supposed to stop the spread of tuberculosis.

Coronovirus has been no different. In lockdown cities from Rio to Barcelona

were transformed as wildlife and bird song replace the noise of taxi horns and

traffic and with no car pollution you could even see the stars at night.

In this program we'll be asking if cities after lockdown will ever be the same again and if we want them to be.

We'll be hearing some ideas from different cities around the world.

And of course we'll be learning some new vocabulary along the way.

One of the cities most affected by COVID-19 was Mumbai in India,

but approximately how many people were affected. What's the estimated population of Mumbai?

That's my quiz question for you today Rob. Is it A 15

million people? B 20 million people or C 25 million people?

I know Mumbai is an international mega city so I'll say B. 20 million people.

Okay Rob we'll find out later if that's right.

Now Beatrice Kolomina is a professor of architecture

at Princeton University in the United States. She spent years researching the

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