Comfort is… Results of the etnographic study
The comfort themes are made to sum up the main areas of comfort that arose from the user studies. Because the titles are quite ambiguous I will elaborate on them a bit more after the break.
- Comfort is what people make
- Comfort is bringing feeling, observing and understanding in tune
- Comfort is about social relations
- Comfort is a political construct
- Indoor comfort connects to the outdoor
- Comfort means becoming healthy
- Comfort is what people make
The indoor climate is mostly looked at as a property of the building. The observations show that the indoor climate is not only a property but also about how the inhabitants make use of the space. Their habits and activities should be leading in the designing for indoor comfort. Different activities require a different setup of the room. It would be interesting to look at how the arrangement of the indoor climate according to the current or planned activity contributes to the indoor comfort.
People find ways to structure life and structure discomfort, reduce complexity or chaos. They often accept unpleasant situations due to an experienced lack of control. Provide people a sense of control could empower them to take control and experience more comfort. Automatic controls sometimes ask for manual overrides due to personal preference or the feeling of power, being in control of the system.
- Comfort is bringing feeling, observing and understanding in tune
The indoor climate consists of different intangible factors which most people are not even aware of. A mapping is made of a few intangibles like temperature, pressure and relative humidity. But how do people experience these factors? How do those factors contribute to indoor comfort? The scale and visualisation that is used now are quite abstract and not in line with people’s understandings and experiences. People rely more on a number than on their own feelings. They value an expert’s opinion which can range from the thermometer to the neighbours to the local plumber or even television.
- Comfort is about social relations
People usually don’t live in solitude in a single room. They share a house with their family and their office with co-workers. This is where social relations come into play. One way of looking at it is how to come to a consensus about the indoor climate. Can the system be the arbitrator? Another way is to move towards private comfort bubbles where everybody has its own control over the indoor climate inside their bubble. It is about how people perceive the indoor climate. There is no common language to talk about the indoor climate which makes it hard to communicate what should be changed.
Another factor that plays a role in people’s comfort is the social hierarchy. The comfort differs because of the social composition of the people inside the room. A formal meeting with potential investors is different from a weekly meeting with co-workers.
- Comfort is a political construct
Regulations and standards are a great driver to set or adjust the standards. Whether people live up to these regulations is questionable. The challenge is to make people aware of the risks and why these regulations are being maintained. The government wants people to waste less energy by playing the ‘save money’ card. There should be more ways to engage people instead only looking at the financial side. Make people aware of the direct consequences and give them real-time information on which they can reflect could be useful.
- Indoor comfort connects to the outdoor
Indoor and outdoor are mostly seen as states, black and white. The way these players influence each other is something much overlooked. A warm room during winter can be a cool place during summer. The ‘grey’ way of looking at it would be to use different stages over the day to prepare one situation with the qualities of the other. For example cooling a house during the night to prepare it for the warm upcoming day could make a big contribution to the indoor comfort.
- Comfort means becoming healthy
The main focus is to prevent health risks rather than solving them. Make people aware of the relation between the indoor climate and their health would improve the comfort of living and together lowering the amount of sick building syndrome (SBS) cases. This can be seen from a short time view or a longer period where prolonged exposure and history play a role.