The Big COVID Park
Soumya Mazumdar

The Big COVID

“Big Things” have a become uniquely Australian. The greater Sydney area has no representation of a “Big Thing”. The COVID pandemic poses a unique opportunity for the city to commemorate the successful campaign against the virus that the city, New South Wales and Australia as a whole have implemented. I propose the “Big COVID Park”, with a 100 meter diameter COVID in the middle (see figure). This would represent a billion times scaled model of a virus (assuming a size of 10 microns). The virus model could be made of plastic discarded from medical waste, to draw attention towards this issue, as the pandemic has laid bare this issue. Alternatively the virus could be hollow and filled with plastic medical waste (with transparent look in windows). Seating would be Y shaped and surround the virus, representing human antibodies. The number of seats would be equal to the number of months required to approve the first vaccine. Further still, the seats would be 1.5 meter apart to commemorate the social distancing that was implemented. A small concrete pillar made to look like a stack of toilet paper will represent the panic buying that gripped the country. Finally, a small blue pool will honour all of those who died in the pandemic. The park-monument will serve to remind us for generations, how a humble virus, could humble the hubris in us. It will make us pause, remember, recollect and be prepared.