# Home Balconies during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Future Architect's Preferences in Lisbon and Warsaw
## 4 Discussion  
The study findings show similar outcomes despite the cultural, geographical, and climatic differences between Lisbon and Warsaw. In six out of eight questions (except for two and five), only one response differs in the group of preferences. For instance, in the \"Orientation\" question, Lisboners rank the south quadrant in first place and the east and west quadrants in second place, while Varsovians rank the south and west quadrants in first place and only the east quadrant in second place. The differences between these results may be due to the various amounts of sunshine per day/season; the west quadrant in Lisbon is usually uncomfortable during summer. The average results indicate that changes in climate between both locations have a minor influence on the functioning of the balcony. Furthermore, there are minor statistically significant differences in the rating of selected responses, resulting in not changing the position between the group of preferences. There are three differences in four out of eight questions (three, four, seven, and eight). There are two differences in three questions (one, two, and six). There are no significant differences in the fifth question, and the groups shared the ranking. This indicates that the differences between locations, such as social context, climate, and geographical features, do not play a major role in KI preferences concerning home balconies during pandemic times. The results show that the use of balconies for resting and spending time with others increased, as well as people's perception of how important those features are. Therefore, the trend of using balconies for dining, reading, gathering people, and resting is evident. In line with this, [PERSON] and [PERSON] [42] state that socialising was the highest-scored activity, followed by listening to music, meditation, and reading, which matches the present  
Figure 11: (**a**) Lisbon and Warsaw KI mean result concerning question 8 “Interactions”. (**b**) Ranking tabs, from the highest (I) to the lowest (III) preference level. study outcomes, where read, write or media interactions, gather people, break from the routine, and observe the world around you were the most preferred ones. Smoking was the least carried-out activity matching the present study. In the same way, the outcomes match the results of the study by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [46] in Poland, where relaxing and reading, along with surrounding observations, were some of the most observed activities in balconies. On the opposite side, basic activities, such as drying laundry, are far from top preferences matching a tendency observed by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [42] and [PERSON] and [PERSON] [21] to be used less frequently. A similar outcome is found in the latter author, reporting that during the pandemic, along with the increase in balcony usage, other activities emerged and took place (e.g., kids playground, exercise, working, and having meals). Furthermore, another reason contributing to the rising importance of having a semi-private space, such as a home balcony, is the evidence that it sustains physical and mental health benefits for its users compared with those who do not [3; 23; 24; 26]. Therefore, the evidence points toward changes promoted by the COVID-19 pandemic which awakened users' behaviour, and increased the use and importance of home balconies mainly due to the transfer of activities previously performed outdoors into this space. As [PERSON] and [PERSON] [21] (p. 10) state: \"Before lockdown, the balcony was in a sense an abandoned/neglected space at home,\" now, the paradigm is undergoing significant changes. The present study outcomes corroborate this idea as size and shape, followed by finishing materials, were the KI top preferences in the balcony \"Aesthetics\" question in both groups.