Architects’ ‘enforced togetherness’: new design affordances of the home

Abstract

Lockdown impositions have impacted people's lives, their health and wellbeing, changing the ways in which dwellings are used and occupied. Spaces within the home have had to be rapidly renegotiated, redesigned and resynchronised in ways not yet fully explored or understood. Social relationships in the home have shifted and adapted as a result of 'enforced togetherness'. This study presents a rich snapshot of 23 UK designer-architects' transformative lived experiences of lockdown, using an interpretative phenomenological approach. It identifies four critical socio-spatial affordances that are rooted in the physical and mental wellbeing of the architects/designers. 'Individuality' suggests the need for increased physical separation to be alone. 'Communality' denotes a need for household members to be together. Both individuality and communality are seen as two opposite dimensions of the socio-spatial affordance of the home. 'Adaptability' points to requirements for flexible, decluttered and versatile spaces to enable 'vibrancy' not 'suffocation'. Finally, 'connectivity' encompasses the need for a strong connection between the indoors and outdoors. These dimensions must be considered in housing design, so new housing models can emerge. The use of interpretative phenomenological analysis, employing the architectural tool of drawing, is shown to be a useful approach for housing research.

Lived experience in human-building interaction (HBI): an initial framework

“…Although very prominent, the operationalisation of these phenomenological frameworks in the form of case-studies and empirical investigations occurred only in recent years within the field of architecture. Some examples involve investigating the authenticity of place in relation to the urban built environment (Wesener, 2016), people's spatial experiences of ambient atmospheres (Jouan et al, 2021;Pritzen et al, 2023) and healthcare settings (Annemans et al, 2018), people's everyday bodily experience of the urban environments (Peri Bader, 2015;Bader and Peri Bader, 2016), and architects' lived experiences during COVID-19 lockdowns (Marco et al, 2022), among others. Albeit limited in numbers, these case studies contribute to a deeper understanding of the lived experiences within architectural contexts.…”

Designing Post-Digital Hybrid Workplaces

“…Arguably, the pandemic created a more mainstream hours, managing work-life balance at home, suitability of home spaces for work, etc. (Ipsen et al 2021;Marco et al 2022;Palumbo 2020;Yang et al 2023), propelling many organisations to hypothesise about the future of work (e.g., Lund et al 2021). Large firms such as Gensler, Arup and WeWork conducted studies in different geographical regions to understand the changing expectations the pandemic has created for employees and the strategies organisations consider in returning to the office.…”