Shelters provide physical survival. Throughout time along with the development of urban models, the agendas for protection turned into singular functional units, such as single family, office, storage, etc. Undergoing present realities these spaces of shelter are no longer single use and, further, they are in fact connected, not separated, to other places in many ways. 

 

As part of the Estonian Academy of Arts Urban Models course in Spring 2020, seven urban studies students were asked to take a U-turn in their research. Instead of an initial plan of focusing on many municipalities in decline in East Estonia, where the changing policies and socio-economical factors of recent decades have led to an excess supply of housing, they centered on their immediate condition— their homes at the time of self-isolation. 

 

The course asked to place the perspectives of future housing within a pivotal role in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Living in quarantine is influencing the population towards habitation that diffuses and transcends the traditional separation between living and working. Self-isolation has challenged the urban models of housing, e.g in cases of imposing rent holidays, repurposing hotels and other tourist targeted short-term rentals or perspectives of homelessness for those unable to pay their rent or mortgages in near-future. Responses to this kind of crisis by the policies and/or state/city officials are yet unknown, but in some cases legislation is looking for ways to put moratoriums on evictions, loan values, etc. This seems to be a temporary, ad hoc response to the unexpected. The shortage of housing and urban inequalities become even more evident than before. To phrase it in a dramatic tone:  “Where you live, determines how you will die”. 

 

Students were asked to connect course thematic reading and personal self-isolation documentation to the perspectives of future housing affected by the crisis. Each of the students focused their project in a certain area of quarantine urbanism where problems in architecture on the question of home and housing become more evident in this ongoing crisis-condition. This website holds seven essay-collages from students of urban studies to present their employed and tested experiences and approaches to highlight their hypotheses of present and future(s) of living during crisis.

 

Tutors: Keiti Kljavin and Kristi Grišakov