Casa de Todos (Home for All) Alex Hudtwalcker Rey

Balcony in western modern architecture has its root from the Greek vernacular housing’s outside room, in the form of a terrace, flat roof, or solarium (Campbell, 2005). Modern European architecture in the 1900s adopted the balcony or open window as a means to treat tuberculosis. However, in modern times, balconies in metropolitan cities usually function as relaxational and recreational spaces. When the COVID-19 pandemic makes the government opt to close parks and trails, the balconies in highly-dense cities rebuild the connection between homes and households. A YouTube video shows that Wuhan residents in a gated community walk to their balconies, first chanting “Keep it up, Wuhan,” followed by singing the Chinese national anthem together (Run Runner, 2020). During the spring and summer of 2020, every day at 7 pm, New York City residents went to their balconies to clap, applaud, bang pots and pans, and play instruments to convey gratitude to frontline medical workers. People in Naples, Italy, hung “solidarity baskets” filled with food from their balconies to help feed the homeless on the street amidst the social distancing orders (Poggioli, 2020). By intensifying the activities on balconies from relaxation to socializing, the citizens appropriated and gave new use to them. Besides the functions of gathering and performing daily life, public spaces in the city have often been valorized as democratic spaces of congregating and political participation, where groups can vocalize their rights. A form of spatial activism appeared when the residents used balconies as a channel of democracy. Since January 23, residents in Wuhan were not allowed to leave their apartment for 45 days. During that period, all groceries and daily needs were delivered to the door by either the neighborhood committee or property management companies. Some residents were not happy that the property management company de facto monopolized the food market and charged high prices and delivered bad produce. On March 8, 2020, when an inspection team led by Sun Chunlan, Vice Premier of China and chief of China Coronavirus Task Force, arrived at a neighborhood in Wuhan, residents shouted “all of this is fake” from their balconies to Sun and other government officials expressing their anger (Guardian News, 2020). Through turning balconies into democratic spaces, the residents vocalized their rights to the public and government.

Social Media as New Public Space

Social media platforms make the world more connected during quarantine. People post videos and send messages on social media, which is more direct and comprehensive than traditional print media. During the pandemic, Internet traffic in China increased by 50% compared to the end of 2019 (Liu, 2020). Flourishing social media, to some degree, compensated for the loss of public space. Social media helped some cities or groups of people gain more attention under the disease. Webster (2011) argued that digital technology provides an unlimited supply of media, but people only have limited public attention. During the early stage of the pandemic, unable to spread the dire need on social media means being abandoned by crowdsourcing help, one of the primary channels of personal protective equipment (PPE) supply. Community advocates start fundraising campaigns on social media for money and resources to secure PPE for the hospital, while architects and makers exchanged knowledge on 3D-printing face shields to deal with the local shortage of PPE. However, social media also has many downsides. While we saw much information about the hardship in United States, Italy, Spain, and the UK on the western-centric English social media and news platform, people suffering the disease in Turkey (#9 total cases) and Iran (#10 total cases) in April, 2020 were barely visible in the English-speaking social media world. The absence of nonwestern stories on international news and social media is critically dangerous when the amount of attention you gain could be directly related to the aid you will receive.

Space after the COVID-19 pandemic

In the foreseeable future, our society will still be functioning in a state of exception. The pandemic revealed the extent of our public spaces’ vulnerability. Government and social advocates, even the general public themselves must find ways to demilitarize our public space and return the physical and virtual public space to the public. Jacques Ranciere (2020) mentioned that neither politicians, who rely on a “state of exception,” nor intellectuals, who want to overthrow the current society, but only those working for the present can change the process in the future.

Hanzhang Yang is a MSUP student in his final year. He is VP of Event Planning for Urban China Network and co-founder of BeerSAPP. You can find him at random New York taprooms for the freshest tap and neighborhood’s history before COVID.

Casa de Todos (Home for All)

The day when the arrival of COVID-19 in Perú brought along a new chapter of hope

Alex Hudtwalcker Rey M.S. UP

On March 31st, 2020, a few days after the Peruvian Government had imposed a strict period of confinement, a temporary structure for homeless shelter Casa de Todos (Home for all) was installed in the arena of the oldest bullring in the Americas, Plaza de Acho. The day that COVID-19 arrived, not only marked the beginning of a nationwide emergency, but also represented the disruption of a century-long systemic patriarchal norm that uses violence for spectacle. Casa de Todos is a private-public initiative proposed by Lima´s Governor, Jorge Muñoz, and the Society of Charity of Lima, which sought to bring more than one hundred homeless people into a safe space where they could receive medical care and food. Most importantly, Casa de Todos served as a temporary shelter. The central arena was covered by a membrane floor and organized in 5 modular structures: a central structure, divided into bedroom units, and 4 smaller modules for services and medical assistance.

Casa de Todos, a temporary structure installed in Plaza de Acho, Lima, Perú Source: Franz Krajnik (2020) Casa de Todos, Source: Franz Krajnik (2020) Since its construction in 1766 in the Historic Center of Lima, Plaza de Acho has witnessed a number of unusual events, such as the rise of the first hot-air balloon in South America in 1840, political rallies, concerts and different sport tournaments. Nevertheless, it was the first time in its 254-year history that Plaza de Acho was utilized for a purpose other than leisure activities or spectaclerelated events. In fact, it was the first time in 74 years that the biggest bullfighting festivity in Peru, El Señor de Los Milagros (Christ of the Miracles), was canceled since it started in 1946. Certainly, the COVID-19 pandemic made a humanitarian effort possible, an attempt that different social and political groups had sought for many years. Even though this humanitarian effort was celebrated by the majority, it was still expectedly condemned by some people. Nevertheless, a space for exclusion purposely conceived for activities perpetuating non-human violence has now been transformed into a space for healing and refuge. Certainly, the decision on choosing Plaza de Acho for a medical emergency event is way beyond its capabilities for accommodation: the bullring not only offers a secluded empty space, but also comes with technical installations and basic services, such as electricity, sewage, and water.

Casa de Todos , Source: José Vidal (2020)