The fear of the unknown, contagious virus dominates everyday life and the society is trying to find solutions in order to continue to survive. At the same time, nature continues to spread uncontrollably as human intervention has been suspended. Big cities are drowning in the green, animals have taken to the streets, conquering what has always belonged to them. Terrified people are locked in their homes, in the only safe place now, abruptly stopping any activity related to their previous 'normality'. The health system is on the verge of collapsing. Everything has changed now, the only thing that matters is the isolation of the patients. The infected body must be identified and removed. The only danger now is the other.

In this context, we are schematically imagining the condition of life in a pandemic, commenting on three different case studies, proposing a set of urban scenarios. The main direction of our thinking has to do with the re-use and re-definition of existing structures, and ultimately the design of easy-to-use and economical tools to improve safely the everyday experience.

BALCONY | Starting from the condition of the house restriction, we examined the possibility of the balcony as the only place where the residents could enjoy the outdoor space. Since the typologies of balconies vary from building to building, while some do not even have a cantilever, we suggest a folding construction that has the ability to adapt to any type of balcony and offers its extension. This idea aims to create a network of expanded balconies and ultimately, the discovery of a new public meeting place and relaxation that will obey the new rules of hygiene and distance. At the same time, these structures can be assembled and placed in different environments and function as patient isolation and treatment centers. The sea is one of those places where patients can be safely transported and treated with fresh air, as if they were in a new kind of ephemeral sanatorium. Moreover, an addition to our design proposal is the design of a new type of balcony that can be extended to periods when the house will be the permanent residence. In practice, the new type of balcony can be mechanically transformed and acquire two forms, the conventional balcony and the extended one. Therefore, there is an additional possibility of taking advantage of the outdoor space that a balcony has to offer.

MEANS OF TRANSPORT| The restriction of traffic and transport results in the immobilization of most public transport vehicles. Indicatively, we propose the re-use of all urban and intercity buses as well as trucks and their conversion into intensive care units for the infected. The vehicles will be transported to the parking lots of the hospitals and will be used as auxiliary means. In the event of a health system collapse, these structures can be relocated wherever necessary. In this way, the treatment will be sufficient and the infected bodies will be separated from the healthy ones, significantly reducing the rate of transmission of the virus. In addition, this proposal can be made with smaller financial resources compared to the construction of new hospital units, given the urgent health and economic conditions.

THE SQUARE | The concept of public space is in the process of renegotiation. The fact that people are no longer active in a place other than their home, takes away the meaning that so far encloses the public, collective space. Its use now, has to do with time-limited and quality-controlled physical exercise, while it lacks any form of interaction. In order to ensure individual and -therefore- collective hygiene, wash basins and public toilets are installed in all outdoor urban areas. In particular, in the case of public toilets, a disinfection mechanism is provided for the user at the entrance and the entire cabin after each use.

The pandemic now dictates the complete redefinition of design. The proposal is based on the question of what life will be like after quarantine and how society will continue to function in the context of an underlying pandemic. The ‘Manifestations of a Pandemic Afterlife’ is a pause in the pandemic chronicle and illustrates our vision for the evolution of everyday reality into the possible sterile life that is approaching.