After Comfort: A User’s Guide — Editorial

After Comfort: A User’s Guide- Editorial is the foreword to a collection of essays and projects that attempt to renegotiate the current relationship between architecture and the climate controlled interior. We can only hope that we are approaching the apex of carbon usage, that either a critical reckoning or total saturation will prevent further growth. As it stands today, the field of architecture is a key conspirator in carbonized growth, but it has the potential to be the facilitator of decarbonization. One way to approach decarbonization is rethinking the building’s role in comfort. Any new builds cannot take air conditioning for granted, cannot rely on a never-ending stream of cheap energy. New (and ancient) strategies for cooling and heating need to be implemented in order to exit the dangerous feedback loop of air conditioning contributing to climate change contributing to the need for air conditioning. Comfort is, as it has been for centuries, a privilege dependent on financial means; and the ability to convert carbon comforts to green energy is only available to the upper class. But comfort is also a construct, and its perception can be changed. Comfort as we know it today is fundamentally unsustainable, but if, through design, the definition of comfort can be altered, then we will be closer to a decarbonized world.

Barber, Daniel A. et al., After Comfort: A User’s Guide, e-Flux Architecture, October 2023. https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/after-comfort/568230/editorial/.