The COVID-19 global health crisis has spatial implications concerning social isolation to control the spread of the virus. The preventive measures require travelers to stay in mandatory quarantine for 14 days upon arrival from another country. Due to a shortage of government facilities, more hotels have started to function as quarantine facilities. This research focuses on quarantine hotels in Australia, as one of the first countries to implement an international border restriction, to evaluate the spatial needs of users and what see outcomes can be identified. By primarily focusing on hotel users’ well-being during the isolation period, this paper responds to an information gap regarding the quarantine hotel system by providing user opinions on the negative and positive factors affecting their well-being. A survey with multiple-choice and open-ended questionnaire items was conducted with 54 participants to investigate their experiences in quarantine hotels. Among the nine key sources of well-being, the three highest-scored responses were an operable window (4.7), ventilation (4.5), and natural lighting (4.3). Access to the outdoor environment via a balcony or operable window was an acute and fundamental requirement for guests. Additionally, participants mentioned that they are unwilling to return to the hotel where they spent their quarantine, which raises issues regarding the future of hotels.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the multi-functional use of the domestic sleep environment (bedroom) and present evidence on outcomes that can be identified. By looking at the sleep environment in a broader context and considering the use of the bedroom space besides sleeping, this research responds to an information gap in sleep studies. A survey with multiple-choice questionnaire items was conducted with 304 participants in Australia to investigate the relationship between occupants’ use of the bedroom space and their sleep habits. We found evidence that today’s bedrooms are used for more than just sleeping, reflecting the respondents’ multi-functional needs. Of the respondents, 60% agreed to have a consistent sleeping routine, while 49% answered they have/might have a sleep problem. The mean hours spent in a sleeping environment are 9.31, while the sleeping mean hours are 7.12. While 40% reported using the bedroom as their living space, 61% said they prefer to use it only for sleep. Age, occupation and the bedroom’s location affect bedroom use and preferences. This study provides an initial inquiry into developing design strategies and understanding on the intertwined relationship between sleep and its environment.

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This article discusses Icelandic installation artist Olafur Eliasson’s approach of the threshold as a productive liminal space rather than as a static boundary between the inside and the outside. Often defined as the physical division between the interior and the exterior in architecture, the authors argue that by looking at Eliasson’s works in detail, the threshold’s inherent capacity of comprising a dynamic dialogue between inside and outside where one is determined by the other unfolds. This paper proposes that designing the relationships between inside and outside involves subtle renegotiations and redefinitions of conventionalised notions of their boundaries and a resultant emergence of new design strategies. Eliasson designs thresholds in diverse ways that he analyses and provokes the spatial associations between inside and outside, interior and exterior.  While in Eliasson`s work the categories of inside and outside remain mutually exclusive, they physically co-exist at the same time; deliberately refracted, juxtapositioned, connected or confounded in an experimental yet rigorous approach that employs different scales and common characteristics. Seventeen of his works are analysed and grouped into four different threshold design strategies that result in an object, an association, an event and an immersive space.