Vécu de la pandémie et plasticité du logement: Le cas du « semi-confinement » en Suisse romande

This paper examines how the Covid-19 crisis was experienced in Switzerland during the first wave of the pandemic. It analyses the results of a self-administered online survey that was disseminated in April 2020 as part of a short multidisciplinary research project (“Corona Citizen Science”). It tackles the topic of residential inequalities in times of crisis through the lens of the domestic sphere’s “plasticity”, defined as the unevenly distributed possibilities to transform and adjust objects, relations and practices that take place within the home in order to cope with the crisis. The analysis of the survey shows that people who had to deal with an accumulation of difficulties are those who needed most to adapt their interior and their domestic practices. On the contrary, the absence of severe constraints went hand in hand with the preservation of the state of dwelling and domestic routines. Studying this unprecedented situation shows that plasticity is an asset for households with more favourable socioresidential conditions, while the youngest categories, those most exposed to precariousness and women, have to adapt their dwelling in the face of uncertainties.