Comfort paradigms & practices

Heather Chappells & Elizabeth Shove

Lancaster University

Department of Sociology

Meanings of ‘comfort’

A physical condition, a feeling of contentment or a sense of well-being

Changing associations over time (e.g. fresh air school or ac office)

Cultural diversity (from 6 to 31 degrees C)

Comfort paradigms

Theory ofcomfort

Definingcomfort

Determiningcomfort

Achievingsustainablecomfort

PHYSIO-LOGICAL

ADAPTIVE

SOCIALCONVENTION

Biologicalheatbalance

Physio-logical/behaviouraladaptation

Social andculturalexperience

Definableuniversalcondition

Definablecondition

Matter ofcultural& historicalconvention

Laboratoryexperiments

Field studies

Ethnographicenquiries

Providecomfortableconditionsefficiently

Provideadaptiveopportunities

Facilitatediversity

Physiological

Protected indoor environments

People as passive bodies with fixed needs

Standardised conditions (22OC) - thermal monotony

Natural climate as the enemy of

human productivity -

a threat to be kept at bay

Adaptive

Modify the external climate: mediate and transform but not exclude

Variable indoor environments

Self-regulating and active bodies

Indoor conditions that ‘float’ with external conditions and permit a variety of experience

Social convention

Mediated indoor environments

People as social beings

Thermal needs & indoor conditions defined by socio-cultural and socio-technical worlds in which they are constructed and reproduced

From 6 to 30 degrees C

Comfort ‘making’ today

Architects, services engineers, building regulators, air-conditioning manufacturers, property developers, facilities managers

How different ideas about comfort inform processes of decision-making and how these become embodied in particular buildings, environments or spaces.

The entire system of comfort-making: from concept through design, specification, construction, use, maintenance & evaluation

Key issues

How and why have meanings & expectations of comfort changed & with what implications for living & working conditions?

How have standards and regulations promoted and stabilised certain meanings of comfort and modes of comfort provision?

How have different expectations of comfort influenced the ways in which buildings are constructed and used?

How might more sustainable interpretations of comfort take root in the context of climate change?

We see comfort as being a broader issue than just thermal, that doesn’t mean that we can assess all those other issues equally as well but at least it means that we recognise that it might mean more than air temperature or radiant temperature. We understand that there are a number of theories of comfort out there and that thermal comfort is just one of a number of parameters to be considered. We understand that comfort is physiological and psychological and we try wherever possible to be as adventurous with both or consider both.

Extract from interview with Building Engineer

Meanings of comfort

Changing user expectations of comfort

Extension of air-conditioning to all realms of life - cars, shops & offices

Expectation of domestic cooling as part of this trend - changing expectation of what comfort is in homes

Policy makers legitimising air-conditioning through promoting efficiency

Comfort standards

If you take an air-conditioned building you would generally have a specification which would be following the British Council of Offices which is pretty rigid or CIBSE, so you would look at standards and I don’t think there’s a lot of debate about that. The debate comes when you say ‘well we’re not going to air condition’ or ‘we’re going to do a mixed-mode building which will float’, what will people put up with?

Extract from interview with building engineer

Diminishing flexibility

Natural ventilation‘Looser’ criteria28 degrees OK

Mixed-mode

Mechanical control‘Tight’ criteria22 degrees C

Building codes

Client expectations

Perceived user needs

Designer experiences

Technical standards

COMFORT-MAKING TOOLKIT

Social conventions

There comes a point in any construction phase where you stop dithering and contemplating you’re options and you go for a specific option. And once you’ve got to that stage you can’t suddenly say ‘lets go nat vent’ once you’ve made decisions…I think you’ll find that there are some very fundamental choices about the form of a building that are made and once you’ve made them you can’t flip from one to the other…You know if you’re going to have lots of operable windows you’re going to have a different [thermal] mass than a building you’re trying to isolate

Extract from interview with building engineer

Diversity in expectation

Diverse expectations of comfort associated with different environments (e.g.schools, homes, hospitals, offices, trains)

Influences levels of precision & control required (scope for individual or collective thermal regulation)

Cultural norms and conventions limiting diversity

Responding to climate change

Redefining standards

Reinventing air-conditioning

Re-evaluating ways of life

Comfort making in the UK

Theory ofcomfort

Definingcomfort

Determiningcomfort

Achievingsustainablecomfort

PHYSIO-LOGICAL

ADAPTIVE

SOCIALCONVENTION

NV exemplars & adaptive standards

More efficient air-conditioning

Comfort as alleviation of discomfort

Providing prescribed comfortable & healthy conditions

Promote diversity in meanings, experiences and expectations

Specifying the ‘adaptive range’

Questioning legitimacy of contemporary social/building conventions

More precision & reinvention of ‘comfort cooling’

Opening new conversations about comfort

Future Comforts

Comfortable indoor environments a product of specific contexts in which they are defined, evaluated & achieved

Different socio-technical trajectories but directions taken will depend on the dominance of certain actors in shaping expectations & norms

Danger of lock-in especially given longevity of buildings

Issues to explore...

How different paradigms are inscribed in buildings of today?

What might prevent increasing reliance on energy-intensive methods of indoor climate control?

Are indoor climates converging around the world and around whose ideas or models of comfort?

What might it take to redefine current standards as unacceptable for human well-being?

How might new vocabularies of comfort and methods of calculation take root?