Thermal Delight in Architecture
by Lisa Heschong
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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 show more associate their thermal sense with their other senses. The hearth fire, the sauna, the Roman and Japanese baths, and the Islamic garden are discussed as archetypes of thermal delight about which rituals have developed -- reinforcing bonds of affection and ceremony forged in the thermal experience. 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. This book for the solar age could help change all that and open up for us a new dimension of architectural experience. As the cost of energy continues to skyrocket, alternatives to the use of mechanical force must be developed to meet our thermal needs. A major alternative is the use of passive solar energy, and the book will provide those interested in solar design with a reservoir of ideas. Lisa Heschong earned a degree in Environmental Planning from the University of California at Berkeley and once in Architecture from MIT. show lessTags
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Heschong's claims that the aesthetic aspect of thermal properties of buildings have been sadly neglected due to our almost full control over the temperature of our indoor spaces. We lose something by always being in a highly tuned environment. Heschong sets out to describe the aesthetic importance of temperature by appeal to architects, authors, and cultural traditions.
Thermal regulation is necessary for life. Humans can only live with a reasonably small range of temperatures. As Heschong puts it, "Buildings, even in the conventional ways we now build them, can be viewed as a way to modify a landscape to create more favorable microclimates."
Yet once that basic need is met, thermal regulation takes on an aesthetic aspect. Take sitting show more around a fire as an example. Part of the delightfulness of such as exercise is from the contrast between the warm (perhaps almost too warm) fire and the cooler space beyond. Heschong gives many other examples, all of which lead to the conclusion that, despite common building practices, our buildings are more delightful when they are not uniformly heated and cooled.
It's an interesting thesis and has some intuitive appeal, but overall, as a lay person, I was left with a "so what" feeling. show less
Thermal regulation is necessary for life. Humans can only live with a reasonably small range of temperatures. As Heschong puts it, "Buildings, even in the conventional ways we now build them, can be viewed as a way to modify a landscape to create more favorable microclimates."
Yet once that basic need is met, thermal regulation takes on an aesthetic aspect. Take sitting show more around a fire as an example. Part of the delightfulness of such as exercise is from the contrast between the warm (perhaps almost too warm) fire and the cooler space beyond. Heschong gives many other examples, all of which lead to the conclusion that, despite common building practices, our buildings are more delightful when they are not uniformly heated and cooled.
It's an interesting thesis and has some intuitive appeal, but overall, as a lay person, I was left with a "so what" feeling. show less
I love this book because it talks about how thermal function, thermal perception, and thermal wellbeing shapes our relationships and interactions with people. My favorite quote is on page 43, "Little by little, our family life, which at home was distributed throughout the entire house [because of the convenience of central heating systems] and which we had tried to distribute thoughout the Peyrane house, withdrew from all other rooms and was concentrated in the salle . . . I had to learn to work while the children were playing. The children had to learn to play more quietly. I had to learn to pick up my paper from the table so that it might be used as a dining-room table . . . Without realizing it we had adapted ourselves to a necessary show more condition of life in Peyrane where families learn to live together in one room . . . It is inevitable that the English word 'home' cannot be translated directly into French. The nearest equivalent in French is the word foyer, the hearth." show less
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