Abstract
This essay offers a glimpse into the ways the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21 affected the day-to-day reality of architectural practice. But what exactly happened in this ‘world’ during the pandemic? Did we just witness another digital ‘turn’? If not, how exactly did the shift to online forms of working and their related technological changes redefine the creative apparatus of small-scale practices and modify their design culture? How did it alter the working space and epistemic habits, reshuffle expertise and redefine project priorities in these firms? This essay focuses on studies of the COVID experiences of a group of Italian practices, representative of what was happening all over the world in terms of architectural practice during the pandemic.