Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the relationship between people’s behaviors and residential spaces, bringing to public and academic attention, on the one hand, the exacerbation of pre-existing problems and, on the other, the potential of spaces, such as communal gardens and apartment-block terraces, to become important resources of sociability or privacy. Overall, this raises the question of how to assess the responsiveness of the existing residential stock to needs that transcend the traditional concept of housing adequacy—e.g., the need for adaptable, open, and livable spaces. This research moves from the assumption that underused spaces in residential neighborhoods represent a crucial asset for creating new economic and social values through architectural and urban projects. Consequently, moving from an in-depth observation of a selection of public housing buildings in Turin as a paradigmatic case study, the aim is to explore the potential for the adaptive reuse of residential spaces at different scales—from the apartment to the neighborhoods—highlighting the implications for design. In doing so, the paper puts forward a methodological approach, which widens the way housing adequacy is normally assessed, by focusing on the possibility of transformation of often neglected spatial resources.
Highlights
The distortions that COVID-19 imposed to the functioning of our cities have exacerbated pre-existing inadequacies of residential spaces and brought the problem to public attention
Summarizing the findings of the analysis developed in the previous paragraph, Table 1 reveals some recurring pandemic-related issues that are often overlooked by existing indicators on adequate housing, which can be synthetically gathered within some common specific features with direct socio-spatial implications at the three scales analyzed: (i) the role of open spaces and the relation among indoor and outdoor spaces; (ii) the livability of spaces, in terms of private or common uses; (iii) the level of spatial adaptability, with respect to rigid or adaptable spaces and uses
COVID-19 pandemic hasbrought broughttotolight lightthe theneed needtoto call into question
Summary
The distortions that COVID-19 imposed to the functioning of our cities have exacerbated pre-existing inadequacies of residential spaces and brought the problem to public attention. Drawing on the literature investigating the relationship between residential spaces and people’s behaviors during the pandemic to highlight a number of compelling issues, our assumption is that underused spaces in residential neighborhoods can represent an important asset for addressing unmet housing needs Given this context, in the present paper, we deepen the concept of adequate housing, focusing on the possibilities for transformation of such spaces, with the aim to assess the potential for value creation through architectural and urban projects. The fourth section turns, in practice, to the microscopic dimension to assess the potential of adaptability of a specific case—namely, a public housing estate in Turin To this end, the analysis is supported by visual materials aimed at underlying and measuring the scope for adaptive reuse of underused spaces. Conclusions and future developments are discussed in the fifth section
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