How Architecture Fails in Conditions of Crisis: a Discussion on the Value of Interior Design over the COVID-19 Outbreak

Abstract

Architecture, that was invented to offer shelter and security from critical natural conditions, is nowadays required to come for the rescue. But it fails. Fight-or-flight is the reaction to danger for survival in the jungle. Humans are part of this. Although some humans are able to remain indoors in critical life-threatening conditions, some others rush towards a new—seemingly natural—horizon, i.e., a village or an island. Is it that architecture in cities fails in offering the adequate natural environmental conditions in order to keep its population indoors or might this behavior be attributed to a more complicated archetypical reason? The best way out of a crisis like COVID-19 is through dwelling indoors. Humans have lived longer in nature than indoors over the timespan of their existence and this might be one of the reasons why some members of society flee towards it in conditions of crisis. However, is this truly the case?