The flipped house and the bubble. Domestic space in the time of coronavirus

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic put the spatial layouts of contemporary housing to the test. During the strict lockdowns in the early phases of the outbreak and the limited, temporary restrictions of the later phases, the safeguarding of public health was inevitably enforced by confining people at home, thus severing, by reasons of force majeure, the traditional relationship between the house and the city. As a result, every household had to contain within itself all aspects of public and private life, regardless of the spatial qualities and the extension of the dwelling. The unexpected new role of the last defence line against the virus showed all the advantages and limits of contemporary housing and the need for a rethinking of some of their typical features. The aim of this article is to investigate how the residential space, as a whole and in its constituent parts, has become a fundamental element in a difficult period, managing to incorporate unexpected functions and requirements but also revealing a series of congenital weaknesses.