Thermal Delight in Architecture: From Climate Responsive to Climate Production

Liane Ee (MArch\ Assistant Professor Chang Jiat Hwee)

Building codes worldwide refer to thermal comfort standards for the design of indoor climate. This has led to a normalization of indoor environments, characterized by air-conditioned thermal monotony and aimed at minimizing thermal sensations. This dissertation posits that indoor climate can drive new architectural experiences and should be explored as an expressive component of architecture. This dissertation argues that the current approach to climate regulation does not explore the potential for indoor climate to be experiential. By charting the emergence of a new type of air-conditioned space that departs from the usual comfort standard, I show that climate production can be a way to celebrate thermal experience in architecture. I postulate a shift from climate regulation to climate production due to rise of the experience economy, using Singapore as an example of how economic aspirations influence the way air-conditioning is used. Air-conditioning played a huge role in Singapore’s modernization, by eliminating thermal discomfort and increasing productivity, andnowitisbeingemployedtocreatedifferentiatedexperiencesforrecreational purposes. A sign that indoor climate production is not merely a thermal novelty, buthaswiderinfluenceonthewayweexperienceandconsumearchitectureand the urban environment.

01 Here Art Grows on Trees by Simryn Gill, 2013

02 Picturing the Tropics Within by Lilian Chee

03 The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design by Graeme Brooker and Lois Weinthal, 2013

04 The Private Interior: Constructing The Modern Domestic Interior in Singapore’s Public Housing by Lilian Chee

05 06 Asian Cinema and the Use of Space by Lilian Chee and Edna Lim, 2015

07 08 Naturban by Adolf Sotoca and Oscar Carracedo, 2015

09 10 Vertical Garden City Singapore by Tan Puay Yok, 2014 11 12 BASECO 2014 Urban Revitalization Strategies for Low-Income Communities in Manila by Hwang Yun Hye and Oscar Carracedo Garcia-Villalba

13 Imperial Contagions edited by Robert Peckham and David M. Pomfret, 2013

14 ‘Tropicalizing’ Planning: Sanitation, Housing, and Technologies of Improvement in Colonial Singapore, 1907-42 by Chang Jiat Hwee

15 RIBA The Journal of Architecture volumn 21 no 1, 2015

16 Thermal Modernity and Architecture by Jiat-Hwee Chang, Tim Winter

17 Southest Asia in Question; Questions in Southeast Asia’s -- Architecture 1st SEAARC Symposium , 2015

18 Architecture, Society and Power, Chair: Chiang Jiat Hwee

19 New Urban Configurations edited by Cavallo, R., Komossa, S., Marzot, N. , Berghauser Pont, M., Kuijper, J. 2014

20 Integrating Design, Use and Operational Complexities in High-Density Urban Space Environments: ‘Tool for Urban Space Analysis (TUSA)’ by Im Sik Cho and Zdravko Trivic 2122 Ti Lian Seng, a+u Issue 528, Chief Editor Tomohisa Miyauchi, 2014

23 24 Innovating the “Hub-Ecosystem” for Healthy Strategic Growth: Singapore Sports Hub, a+u AsianEdition, Chief Editor Tomohisa Miyauchi, 2015

25 26 Past Wisdom in Future Design by Tomohisa Miyauchi, 2015

27 28 1000 Singapore: 8 Points of The Compact City Curated & Designed by: Khoo Peng Beng, Erik L’Heureux and Florian Schätz

29 Detail in Contemporary Residential Architecture 2 by David Phillips and Megumi Yamashita, 2014

30 Details of Stereoscopic House by Erik L’Heureux

31 32 Deep Veils by Erik L’Heureux, 2014

33 34 Dirty Little Secret Thesis Studio Research

35 36 Hot, Wet & Breezy Studio

37 Hot & Wet Studio

38 39 40 41 42 43 44 Climate + Territory Section Posters