Anthropogenic climate change has destabilized a fixed idea of Climate and ‘Comfort’. ''Thermal Comfort'' specifically can no longer be understood as a steady state metric of energy balance, but as a transient condition. In this context, the studio can be an effective extension of earlier discourses on ‘climate responsive design’. It extends the architectural discourse to bring attention to a more flexible and inclusive concept of ‘Comfort’ and seeks to exploit the latent potential of architecture in influencing it. It adds a sensory dimension to creative and climate responsive design approaches towards crafting ''Comfort'' experiences.
Today’s dominant ''Comfort'' model holds that it is a static state of thermal neutrality that varies little between different locations, seasons, people, and times during a day. In the context of an architectural studio, the instructor will direct the students to hypothesize and conceptualize how ''Comfort'' is entangled with more familiar elements of design such as form, building elements and materials, program, and site. Directly addressing ''Comfort'' as part of the design process helps to demonstrate its historical legacy, establish its value as part of today’s environmental reality, and encourage students to think creatively about its implications and possibilities.
