The COVID-19 pandemic and the precautionary measures applied globally (lockdowns and curfews) have impacted homes, including work. Working from home (WFH) has emerged as a growing trend in the post-pandemic era. The research question was: Are our homes ready for teleworking? To respond, a national prospective mixed approach was launched for Spanish households during the spring 2020 lockdown, using two online questionnaires, one quantitative and the other qualitative. Through a survey, photographs, and narratives, the study evaluates the perceived adequacy of telework spaces and their specific characteristics, the availability of digital resources and the internet. A total of 1800 surveys and over 200 images and texts related to telework environments were obtained. The results suggest that the adequacy of these spaces was insufficient for more than a quarter of the homes. Also, strong relations between the perceived workspace adequacy and a social status or stability of homes were shown and validated, despite other sociodemographic features, the home composition or habitat were not related. Some other variables statistically significant were occupation regime, type and surface of dwellings; their indoor environmental quality; the availability of exclusive spaces for teleworking; quality of digital resources; and the specific space features. The analysis was completed with qualitative insights through photos and texts. Telework, lived in this context as an experiment, needs this reflection from an environmental, resource-availability, and ergonomic point of view.

Following the 2020 confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, housing has become the only safe place and this has exposed inequity in habitability. This research on the reality of confined households and the perception of their homes in the Mexican republic is based on a mixed participatory study, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches. The online questionnaire consisted of 58 questions in the quantitative approximation. The qualitative part required the provision of an image of the workspace, with testimonies and personal reflections. During the lockdown, all participants saw an increase in overall energy consumption; more than half reported not being in thermal comfort; and a third declared deficiencies in noise insulation. Regarding the perception of the telework/tele-study space, we found the following categories: bedrooms, living/dining rooms, studies and others. In addition, respondents had often adapted the workspace for both individual and shared use. In general, the households were satisfied with the size of their houses but would like landscaped spaces or better views outside. Confinement made housing the protective element against the pandemic. The consequences will have an effect globally, so new architectural design paradigms need to be rethought.

The confinement by COVID-19 has meant a re-reading of housing for Spanish households, resulting in the only available and safe space to carry out daily activity. This complex phenomenon has generated a completely different way of inhabiting it, as well as of relating to domestic spaces. For this reason, the home perception and its characteristics must be evaluated, highlighting those perceived as deficiencies, or as preferences in such an unusual context as lockdown, where the experience was different depending on the dwelling characteristics, and the family in question. To deepen in this double perception home-dwelling, a mixed method was used, with two online forms. The first is a quantitative questionnaire, while the second asks the participants for photographs and narratives about such images. More than 1800 surveys and 785 qualitative responses were obtained. From both approaches, the joint discourse arose, allowing an exploratory analysis of the current situation of the Spanish residential park, and the resilience demonstrated in this period by both households and their usual dwellings. This study should facilitate the development of new proposals on housing in contexts similar to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Climate change is causing serious damage to natural and social systems, as well as having an impact on human health. Among the direct effects of climate change is the rise in global surface temperatures and the increase in the frequency, duration, intensity and severity of heat waves. In addition, understanding of the adaptation process of the exposed population remains limited, posing a challenge in accurately estimating heat-related morbidity and mortality. In this context, this study seeks to establish a conceptual framework that would make it easier to understand and organise knowledge about human adaptation to heat and the factors that may influence this process. An inductive approach based on grounded theory was used, through the analysis of case studies connecting concepts. The proposed conceptual framework is made up of five components (climate change, vulnerability, health risks of heat, axes of inequality and health outcomes), three heat-adaptation domains (physiological, cultural and political), two levels (individual and social), and the pre-existing before a heat event. The application of this conceptual framework facilitates the assistance of decision-makers in planning and implementing effective adaptation measures. Recognizing the importance of addressing heat adaptation as a health problem that calls for political solutions and social changes. Accordingly, this requires a multidisciplinary approach that would foster the participation and collaboration of multiple actors for the purpose of proposing effective measures to address the health impact of the rise in temperature.

During spring 2020, the world was shocked at the imminent global spread of SARS-CoV-2, resorting to measures such as domestic confinement. This meant the reconfiguration of life in an unusual space; the home. However, not all households experienced it in the same way; many of them were vulnerable. A general increase in energy consumption and discomfort in many cases, led these families to suffer the ravages of confinement. This study analyzes the energy and comfort situation for the Madrid (Spain) population, according to the configuration of the homes, the characteristics of the dwellings, the vulnerability index by district, and energy poverty (measured with the 10% threshold of energy expenditure of home incomes). The results show a greater exposure, in confinement, of vulnerable and energy-poor households to scenarios of discomfort in the home, to which they could not respond, while energy consumption inevitably increased. Driven by need, energy-poor homes applied certain saving strategies, mainly resorting to thermal adaptation with clothing. This study shows the risk these households experienced in the face of an extreme situation, and invites reflection on preventive and containment measures that aim to avoid harming the disadvantaged in the future; harm that would also entail serious consequences on the health of their cohabitants.

Climate change is the greatest threat to human health, with one of its direct effects being global warming and its impact on health. Currently, the world is experiencing an increase in the mean global temperature, but this increase affects different populations to different degrees. This is due to the fact that individual, demographic, geographical and social factors influence vulnerability and the capacity to adapt. Adaptation is the process of adjusting to the current or envisaged climate and its effects, with the aim of mitigating harm and taking advantage of the beneficial opportunities. There are different ways of measuring the effectiveness of adaptation, and the most representative indicator is via the time trend in the temperature-mortality relationship. Despite the rise in the number of studies that have examined the temperature-mortality relationship in recent years, there are very few that have analysed whether a particular population has or has not adapted to heat. We conducted a scoping review that met the following criteria, namely: including all persons; considering the heat adaptation concept; and covering the context of the impact of global warming on health and mortality. A total of 23 studies were selected. This review found very few studies targeting adaptation to heat in the human population and a limited number of countries carrying out research in this field, something that highlights the lack of research in this area. It is therefore crucial for political decision-makers to support studies that serve to enhance our comprehension of long-term adaptation to heat and its impact on the health of the human population.