Choreographies for the Laboratorized City

As the invisible killer "Covid-19" marched through continents and caused major disruptions over the past few months, we began rethinking the conditions through which to design cities, to practice and to study architecture. Yet, what exactly makes this virus so interesting for architectural scholars? How does it transfigure the epistemic formats of design and architectural research? What new reflexivity on architecture does it entice? Addressing these questions, the article makes four observations: first, the pandemic led to a new spatial choreography of daily life and a radical laboratorization of urban space; second, the new material settings of practice triggered new epistemic habits and raised awareness of the complex socio-spatial machinery of architecture making; third, this situation affected how architecture itself is studied and shifted the direction towards a "localist" perspective to knowledge production; fourth, the crisis made us rethink the methodological repertoire of Architectural Theory. A programme of action is offered.