Objective The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally redefined the role of the home, transforming it into a multifunctional habitat encompassing work, education, leisure, and healthcare. In response to this shift, the present study seeks to reconceptualize post-pandemic residential architecture by identifying critical spatial and structural features that enabled domestic adaptability under confinement conditions. It further proposes a theoretical framework for resilient and responsive housing design in the face of prolonged disruption.
Method: The research adopts a qualitative methodology grounded in constructivist grounded theory. Empirical data were drawn from 18 semi-structured interviews with residents, analysis of 84 architectural drawings and plans, and review of 132 scholarly publications. Through systematic open, axial, and selective coding, a theoretical model was developed to illuminate the underlying structural dimensions that facilitated spatial adaptation during enforced domestic isolation.
Results: The model elucidates two interdependent components: (1) architectural and spatial structures, and (2) user-initiated adaptive practices. Residents reconfigured interior spatial arrangements to substitute for inaccessible urban functions and redefined spatial relationships through both boundary-making (e.g., establishing spatial hierarchies, refining circulation patterns) and boundary-breaking (e.g., merging spaces, enabling functional fluidity). These transformations generated “Liminal spaces”—ambiguous, transitional zones free from fixed typologies—which supported flexibility, coexistence, and multi-functionality. These emergent spaces bear strong conceptual and morphological resemblance to spatial practices in traditional Iranian dwellings, where the absence of strict zoning historically fostered adaptability and social cohesion.
Conclusions: The post-pandemic “boundary home” is characterized by spatial porosity, functional indeterminacy, and a heightened capacity for reconfiguration. Liminality, as a spatial condition, becomes central to enhancing resident agency, social attentiveness, ecological integration, and resilience. The proposed architectural framework advocates for the strategic insertion and articulation of liminal zones through the temporal retraction, layering, and soft partitioning of existing domestic spaces—thus equipping contemporary housing to better accommodate crises and spatial uncertainties of the future.