In The Real World of Technology, Ursula Franklin draws on the metaphor of the “house that technology has built” to illustrate the all-encompassing and pervasive environment of technology. In this paper, I take this metaphor literally by turning to our transformed houses and homes during the pandemic. By way of illustration, I draw on my experiences teaching online, which began in March 2020. In Fall 2020, I designed and taught a 4th-year undergraduate course with the title “Taking Shelter” which gave students an opportunity to work through and reflect on the changing nature of house and home, while calling attention to the transformed technological environment in which we were working. Through attention to the places we live and work in everyday, the paper imagines a foundation built on ecological principles that takes account of technology as environment, milieu and system.