A short reflection on Quarantine Urbanism. Reflecting on the urban discourse which is apparently coalescing around the coronavirus and its effects on the city, are a series of arguments and hypotheses, bound by an epidemiological vision of space, in which attention is placed on the system of relationships that define our practices of dwelling and space production rather than on the inhabitant or society as a whole.

Purpose This essay looks at how various forms of residential tourism or lifestyle migration, produced by people arriving from the cities and territories of the so-called Global North, have triggered complex processes of social-spatial modification in the landscapes and rural environments of Vilcabamba, Ecuador, a small Andean village of approximately 5,000 inhabitants in the southern part of the canton of Loja. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach Residential tourism in rural areas is a phenomenon that can be investigated by combining socio-economic studies with spatial analyses to define the specific characteristics of territories and environments affected by this phenomenon. In the case of Vilcabamba, the relationships and conflicts between imaginations, spaces, ecologies and desires have taken the form of a complex “implicit project”, a “palimpsest-project” intended as a set of territorial descriptions, interpretations and transformation actions triggered by a plot featuring migrant tourists, activists, eco-institutions, schools, artisans, intellectuals and artists. Though weakly connected to one another, these subjects nonetheless produce substantially coherent actions. Findings Two main hypotheses are given as: the first is that in particular rural contexts, such as the Andean area around Vilcabamba, dwelling practices and economies related to residential tourism have triggered processes through which these areas have progressively become peripheries to distant metropolitan territories and are reconfigured as sets of specialised places. The second hypothesis is that Vilcabamba and its rural surroundings can be viewed as a particular “contact zone” in which different types of residential tourists and local dwellers interact, together with different economies of tourism. In this case the reference is, on the one hand, to the logics and discourses of the so-called extractive tourism, a concept that describes the processes of “extracting” and converting local cultural characteristics, and “indigenousness”. To support these hypotheses, the result is the construction of a spatial representation of the ways in which specific practices of residential tourism are territorialised, and how they modify the meaning and functioning of rural spaces. Originality/value What is new in the paper is the attempt to define a spatial representation of transnational spaces trying to highlight relationships between extractive tourism and remittance urbanism.

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In the last years, several technologies have been developed to either allow or increase production from heavy oil fields. The greatest challenge is to reduce oil viscosity by heating in depth the formation. Despite the availability of many methods, there is no one that is at the same time technically efficient, economically profitable, environmentally-friendly and applicable to all types of heavy oil reservoirs. This still generates a large amount of research investments for the Major Oil Companies. Eni E&P has initiated an R&D project based on the innovative concept of interconnecting two horizontal wells. The main objective is to realize a closed circuit to allow the continuous circulation of a superheated fluid across a lengthy horizontal section. The heat transferred from the fluid to the formation will reduce viscosity of the heavy oil inside the reservoir and will improve its recovery. The fluid to be circulated will be "super heated" by means of thermodynamic solar energy. All the above make the method studied by Eni E&P applicable to almost all types of heavy oil deposits, characterized by a high technical-economical efficiency and highly eco-friendly. Several aspects are involved in the achievement of such a closed circuit and need to be considered while performing drilling, intersecting and tubing running operations. Specially fit for purpose well profiles and casing/open hole schemes are foreseen in order to correctly reach the reservoir with the intended hole section and align the two wells with a suitable "bridge" (casing or liner). Due to the very high temperature involved in this application, in the above mentioned R&D project there is consideration in developing new materials and welded casing pipes. This paper will describe the approach, the status of the project and the expected results.