200330_ΟΜΑΔΑ_35

Quarantine, the use of an old tool.

Sideridis Ioannis

602167

The past months of this very young year events of great importance took place in a universal scale. These will, without a doubt, shape the way of life for everyone around the world in a way that it’s, probably, too early to know and understand. 2020 started with escalating international diplomatic tensions whilst a big refugee crisis is taking place in the east borders of Europe.  The one event though that will mark this year in future times is the COVID-19 outbreak that we are currently experiencing.  While it started as a local outbreak in China it spread extremely quick and out of proportion in the whole world making modern societies face a threat that, until recently, seemed to be in the past, pandemics. The only way to battle the quick spread of the virus proved to be also a tool of the past, quarantine. One after the other governments placed their citizens in an unprecedented lockdown to prevent the spread, placing an entire continent on quarantine.

Europe has not been in an emergency like that since the end of World War II. So, we suddenly face the surreal absence of everyday life, going to work, paying bills and socializing the way we used to do two weeks ago. Questions rise in situations like this, one of them is what space survives the quarantine. We witnessed the lockdown of public spaces as a strategy of separation and containment but of course the situation is not that simple, as it seems being on quarantine is a social privilege as heavy industries, like factories and power plants are still operational. Refugee camps still house thousands of people really close to each other just like homeless shelter in a smaller scale. A spatial response to that threat and uncertainty is necessary in emergencies like this as quarantine is still the only tool we have in certain circumstances.

Since the whole practice of containment is largely a spatial issue, Architecture is one of the means to modernize and use an old tool such as quarantine. Although building entire infrastructures just to sit empty until a case of emergency is not something entirely realistic, a proposition could be to build public spaces in a hybrid manner, an outline in existing architecture to be used in certain times of need, not just to battle epidemics but also homelessness and other social issues. Looking at examples of the past like Ellis island in New York, Spinalonga in Crete or lazarettos in old port cities the question that rises is if Architecture shapes quarantine or quarantine shapes architecture. Maybe there is a mutual influence in both practices, the certain thing is, though, that as architects we should not consider quarantine a thing of the past anymore but a necessary precaution and it should be a factor for future designs.

As we manipulate space and time to fight microbes that still threaten our fragile civilization, we come to the realization that fighting epidemics is not an entirely medical and geopolitical struggle but also an architectural.