By Natascha Meuser

During the Covid-19 pandemic we have been forced to retreat into private shelters and to question the limits of residential typologies. The villa is an obvious example of such a shelter. It has reemerged as an object of desire, because of the urge to escape the boundaries of our own four walls. Throughout history this typology has been rethought and reinvented by architectural greats who sought to break radically with the tradition of their times. But what does it mean to us to design a villa during a period of isolation and lockdown?