Thermal Delight in Architecture A Book by Lisa Heschong Our thermal environment is as rich in cultural associations as our visual, acoustic, olfactory, and tactile environments. This book explores the potential for using thermal qualities as an expressive element in building design. Until quite recently, building technology and design has favored high-energy-consuming mechanical methods of neutralizing the thermal environment. It has not responded to the various ways that people use, remember, and care about the thermal environment and how they associate their thermal sense with their other senses. Not only is thermal symbolism now obsolete but the modern emphasis on central heating systems and air conditioning and hermetically sealed buildings has actually damaged our thermal coping and sensing mechanisms. The Cinderella of architectureTwo thermal archetypesSonorisms IIIAnasazi dwellingsMigration within buildings+21 More The fire of oak logsInglenookThe Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the SensesPredicted Mean VoteThermal DelightThe spirits' bath house
We need an object for our affections We need an object for our affections, something identifiable on which to focus attention. But in a typical office building, to what can we attribute the all-pervasive comfort of 70ºF, 50% relative humidity? Most likely, we would simply take it all for granted. When thermal comfort is a constant condition, constant in both space and time, it becomes so abstract that it loses its potential to focus attention. Lisa Heschong, Thermal Delight in Architecture It's cold outside, but this room is quite cozy love