Chappells, H and Shove, E (2005) Debating the future of comfort: Environmental sustainability, energy consumption and the indoor environment. Building Research & Information, 33(1), pp. 32-40. ISSN 0961-3218
Abstract
Vast quantities of energy are consumed in heating and cooling to provide what are now regarded as acceptable standards of thermal comfort. In the UK as in a number of other countries, there is a real danger that responses in anticipation of global warming and climate change - including growing reliance on air-conditioning - will increase energy demand and CO2 emissions even further. This is an appropriate moment to reflect on the history and future of comfort, both as an idea and as a material reality. Based on interviews and discussions with UK policy makers and building practitioners involved in specifying and constructing what will become the indoor environments of the future, four possible scenarios are identified each with different implications for energy and resource consumption. By actively promoting debate about the indoor environment and associated ways of life, it may yet be possible to avoid becoming locked into social and technical trajectories that are ultimately unsustainable. The aim of this paper is to inspire and initiate just such a discussion through demonstrating that comfort is a highly negotiable socio-cultural construct.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | adaptation; adaptive behaviour; air-conditioning; climate change; comfort; energy consumption; indoor environment; social convention; sustainability |
| Index terms: | climate change, adaptive behaviour, indoor environment, CO2 emissions, comfort, becoming, history, energy consumption, thermal comfort, resource consumption, environmental sustainability, interview, adaptation, global warming, building practitioner, energy demand |
| Subjects: | health safety and environment, architectural and construction history, climate science, user focus, energy systems, environmental science, air quality, environmental resource management, occupational health and safety management, philosophical process, environmental engineering, human factors, data collection methods, practitioner |
| Topics: | Design Practice, Research Practice, Roles and Professions, Sustainability, Engineering Principles, Health and Safety |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here