This blog distills the core insights from the book Adaptive Thermal Comfort: At the Extremes and translates them into practical guidance for architects, planners, and policy makers.
Drawing on three decades of field experience, I explain why today’s buildings must move beyond a narrow, machine-reliant notion of comfort toward climate-ready designs that stay safe and affordable even as temperatures swing.
The authors—Susan Roaf, Fergus Nicol, and Michael Humphreys—argue that to protect health and well-being, we need to reimagine buildings as hybrid systems that blend natural and mechanical methods and lean less on the electricity grid.
Rethinking the Comfort Paradigm
Our built environment has long functioned as a passive shield—the so‑called third skin—that insulates people from weather.
Twentieth‑century Western design exported glass-walled, air‑conditioned spaces with non-opening windows, a model that is energy‑intensive and increasingly unsustainable.
In heat waves these buildings overheat; in power outages they can become uninhabitable.
For many households the costs of heating and cooling are rising.
These problems are compounded by poorly ventilated single‑aspect flats, dense urban heat retention, and large open‑plan homes with extensive glazing that produce rapid and uncomfortable temperature swings.
The book calls for a radical shift: design buildings that maintain safe indoor temperatures largely independent of the electricity grid by exploiting local renewable resources such as solar, wind, and ground-source energy.
Core criticisms of current practice
- Overheating during heat waves due to extensive glazing and poor shading.
- Vulnerability to power outages because of heavy reliance on mechanical cooling and climate control systems.
- Rising costs of heating and cooling for middle‑class households.
- Ventilation gaps in single‑aspect flats and dense urban settings.
- Urban heat retention and the heat‑island effect that worsens extremes.
- Rapid indoor temperature swings in open‑plan, glass‑rich homes.
Toward Climate-Ready, Grid-Independent Buildings
The authors advocate a shift to hybrid or mixed‑mode buildings that use natural ventilation, deliberate winter solar gain, and time‑based cooling to minimize mechanical dependence.
This approach blends passive design strategies with selective use of technology, aiming to keep environments comfortable without draining the grid.
The core strategies emphasize resilience, affordability, and well‑being as intertwined outcomes of thoughtful design.
Strategies for resilience and comfort
- Hybrid or mixed‑mode operation that activates mechanical systems only when natural ventilation is insufficient.
- Winter solar gain to reduce heating demand and build thermal mass benefits.
- Time‑based cooling that uses diurnal temperature cycles and natural ventilation to lower cooling loads.
- Passive design features such as shading, cross‑ventilation, thermal mass, and airtight yet breathable envelopes.
- Localized renewables (solar, wind, ground sources) to decouple from distant grids.
Global Lessons and Cultural Context
The book looks across cultures to demonstrate how diverse practices can inform modern climate readiness.
Traditional and contemporary methods from different regions offer practical templates for adapting to extremes without sacrificing health or affordability.
By studying regional responses—ranging from portable, climate‑savvy yurts to community‑based energy sharing—designers can craft spaces that stay comfortable with less energy, even when grids falter.
Global models worth studying
- Yurts in Mongolia as portable, climate‑adaptive shelters that balance ventilation and insulation.
- Māori wellbeing philosophies that integrate indoor spaces with outdoor environments and community life.
- Swedish community strategies that emphasize shared resources and resilient housing networks.
- Southeast Asian naturally conditioned architecture that uses shade, airflow, and material choices suited to heat and humidity.
Social Dimensions and Policy Imperatives
Beyond physics, social factors shape comfort.
Fear of crime can deter people from ventilating homes, increasing heat‑related risks, while shared spaces can enhance physiological and psychological well‑being.
The authors insist that incremental efficiency gains are insufficient without accompanying policy and cultural changes that promote climate‑ready living.
Policy must align with design, guiding retrofits, standards, and incentives that support resilient, affordable comfort for all households.
Implications for practitioners and policymakers
- Integrate passive cooling and heating in the earliest stages of design to reduce peak energy use.
- Retrofit buildings to enable natural ventilation and solar access where appropriate.
- Incentivize hybrid systems and locally available renewable energy sources.
- Embed social and community design that enhances well‑being and reduces vulnerability.
- Update building codes and urban policies to address increasingly extreme local climates.
Here is the source article for this story: Opinion: Surviving the extreme temperatures of the climate crisis calls for a revolution in home and building design