Author: Chappells, Heather

Source: Intelligent Buildings International, Volume 2, Number 4, 2010 , pp. 286-298(13)

Publisher: Earthscan

Abstract:

Comfort and well-being are complex and dynamic social and cultural constructs that are laden with different meanings related to different spheres of everyday life (e.g. home, work, leisure, study). Building design frameworks have reduced these concepts to measurable parameters, such as thermal neutrality, but accumulating evidence shows this to be unsupportive of wider occupant, organizational or environmental needs. This supports calls for more adaptive standards and personal control to account for variation in human perceptions of comfort and well-being. Understanding of the sociotechnical dynamics of comfort and well-being as they are negotiated and experienced in the different settings of everyday life is another relatively unexplored area of academic debate. This article reviews these different understandings of comfort and well-being and the approaches to intelligent and sustainable building practice they inspire. In conclusion, the benefits of focusing on comfort and wellbeing as products of socio-technical systems are discussed.

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Keywords: comfort; individual control; social dynamics; social institutions; socio-technical systems; well-being

Document Type: Review article

Publication date: 2010-01-01

More about this publication?

• Editor in Chief: Derek Clements-Croome, University of Reading

  Going beyond traditional engineering and architecture solutions, the Intelligent Buildings International (INBI) journal examines new methodologies and tools for intelligent buildings, smart materials and systems, and explores the wider context beyond theoretical foundations, linking practical solutions with philosophical or sociological considerations.

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