Category Archives: Architecture

Back when I used to dabble in architecture, one of the first books I picked up was called Thermal Delight in Architecture.  Without going into too much detail, the basic premise of the text was that our bodies respond to and greatly appreciate thermal variation in our day-to-day environments.  Some moments and moods should be complemented with the appropriate thermal variations.  The author eventually builds an argument contending that the effectiveness of architecture can be greatly increased by taking this dimension into consideration.

I’ve been thinking about this concept a lot recently as our temperatures begin to fall here in Austin, and as we typically see a daily shift from low 50s to low 80s each day.  I try to embrace this temperature swing as much as possible; it really does seem to improve my mood and energy level.  I’ll usually leave my windows open at night, bundling up under a thick layer of down.  It’s like camping, but indoors.  Keeping my window open serves another purpose too, allowing the sunrise to wake me up gently.  It’s usually chilly when I take off on my bike in the mornings too.  When it warms up in the afternoon, and I’m riding home, I’ll usually sweat a little bit.  And then it all chills down again.

I really enjoy the temperature variation you find in hill country cycling too this time of year.  Cold air will settle in the lower valleys, at the bottoms of large hills, and especially over water crossings.  The body will heat up as you climb upwards, cool off as you descend, and then get hit with a pocket of extra-chilled air when you hit the bottom.  Add in some shade trees over the road, and you have an incredibly thermally dynamic situation, never too hot or too cold to be uncomfortable.

I first discovered the pleasantries of thermal variation long before studying it at university, I just didn’t have the academic language to describe it.  The house we occupied in England didn’t have or need air conditioning, and our heating system wasn’t the best either.  Nights were cold in the winter time, with our bedrooms hovering around the 50s.  You’d definitely have to get out of bed with a few clothes on…  But it was a two story house, with the bedrooms upstairs, and once the sun came up the top floor would gradually begin to heat up to a tolerable temperature.  During the day, the bottom floor would stay happily cool, so we would go about our day down there.  At night we would retire to our chilled bedrooms and big blankets.  It was thermal variation at it’s best.

I know and see a lot of people who have yet to embrace this, living as much of their life as possible between 72 and 75 degrees.  The house, the car, the workplace – everything is artificially heated or cooled, every room and every floor the same.  How dull!