The amount of living space we have access to is one manifestation of the unequal distribution of housing resources within societies. The COVID-19 pandemic has required most households to spend more time at home, unmasking inequalities and reigniting longstanding debates about the functionality and experience of smaller homes. Drawing on interviews across three UK cities, this article attends to the changing household routines of individuals living in different types of small home, exploring daily life before and during ‘lockdown’. Using the concept of urban rhythms, the data show that the lockdown has intensified existing pressures of living in a smaller home – lack of space for different functions and household members – whilst constraining coping strategies, like spending time outside the home. Lockdown restrictions governing mobility and contact acted as a mechanism of exception, disrupting habitual patterns of life and sociability, and forcing people to spend more time in smaller homes that struggled to accommodate different functions, affecting home atmospheres. For some, the loss of normal strategies was so significant that they sought to challenge the new rules governing daily life to protect their wellbeing.

我们能够获得的居住空间的大小是社会内部住房资源分配不平等的表现之一。COVID-19 大流行要求大多数家庭花更多的时间呆在家里，这暴露了不平等，并重新引发了关于小型住宅的功能和体验的长期争论。本文根据对英国三个城市的采访，关注生活在不同类型小房子里的人们的家庭生活习惯的变化，探讨“封锁”之前和期间的日常生活。利用城市节奏的概念，数据显示，封锁加剧了居住在较小房屋中的现有压力——缺乏容纳不同功能和家庭成员的空间——同时限制了应对策略，例如在户外度过时间。限制人员流动和接触的封锁限制充当了一种例外机制，扰乱了生活和社交的习惯模式，迫使人们在难以容纳不同功能的较小房屋中度过更多时间，从而影响了家庭氛围。对于一些人来说，正常策略的丧失是如此严重，以至于他们试图挑战管理日常生活的新规则以保护他们的福祉。