Between Physical and Virtual Windows: Openings of Living in the Pandemic

Abstract

This work discusses the physical and virtual windows enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic, from 2020 to 2023, reflecting on new ways of understanding the production of domestic space and the ambiguity of openings during the period of isolation based on texts by Brazilian writers Helô D'Angelo (2022) and Aline Valek (2021). Relying on the theme The digital and the South: tensions, it brings into dialogue the perspectives of these writers, who are users of architecturally designed spaces, regarding the pandemic in Brazil, which also are perceptions on dwelling initially shared online during the peak of isolation. Using the collage methodology, in which distance is bridged, according to Fuão (2014), this study incorporates the perspectives of philosopher Paul Virilio (2002) and researcher Beatriz Colomina (1992) to examine the permeability of living amid digital technologies. At a time when the home became increasingly introverted and connections with the outside world were mediated through various types of windows, the boundaries between interior and exterior, physical and digital, became blurred yet simultaneously reinforced by the sanitary measures imposed by social isolation.