Social Distance

The term ‘social distance’ was once only a vague metaphor to describe the relationship between different social groups. Yet it has acquired a precise meaning as the mandatory minimum distance for face-to-face interactions: 1, 1.5, or 2 metres (or 6 feet), depending on the jurisdiction. But what is the appropriate distance from which to interpret a pandemic? Rather than asserting a diagnosis of the con­tem­porary emergency, the issue Social Distance offers perspectives from archi­tectural history and theory. From the great plague of Venice to cholera in the indus­trializing city, from the human placenta to the 1960s bubble or the office of today, the fifth gta papers provides a broad range of reflections on contagion, disease, and health.

Adam Jasper: lntroduction 4 Markus Wörgötter: Burnacini's Cloud 6 Laila Seewang: The Prophylactic Landscape 14 Lydia Xynogala: On Airs, Waters, and Places 27 Christa Kamleithner: Dangerous Congestions 38 Milos Kosec and Leslie Topp: lnfection and the Politics of Space 50 Gregorio Astengo: The London Wall and the Great Plague of 1665 62 Britta Hentschel: The Villa 15 Daniel Weiss: From the gta Archives 84 Alex Winiger: Medical Progress and Social Revolution 92 Jeanne Kisacky: A Room of One's Own 101 Annmarie Adams and David Theodore: Separate and Together 109 lrina Davidovici: H: Hospital-as-City 118 Didem Ekici: Airborne lnfedion and Breathing Walls 132 Chair of the History and Theory of Urban Design: The Viral Balcony 138 Lukas Stadelmann: "We Have Enough Food-That Wasn't the Problem" 151 Stanislaus von Moos: From the Bear Pit 160 Caroline A. Jones: Syncytium 167 Cathelijne Nuijsink: Some lnflated Expedations 176 Anne Kockelkorn and Reinhold Martin Reconstrudion and Redistribution 187