Experience of Temperature
- Warmth sustains life but becomes harmful when excessive, leading to a focus on rising global temperatures.
- Behaviour mapping showed how humans, plants, and animals manage warmth through shelters and space.
- A speculative drought bodystorming revealed the need for clearer focus and more grounded scenarios.
Understanding
Ironically, warmth provides the energy essential for life, yet when excessive, it can also destroy it. Its intensity can often be visually perceived through colour temperature such as flames or lighting, but it is primarily experienced tactilely, through mediums like air or water.
Heat naturally rises through air convection. In Korea, the Ondol system, an underfloor heating method, makes use of this principle. Across cultures, traditional heating systems have long centred around braziers, symbolising warmth, gathering, and comfort.
In contrast, I imagined a situation without heat, asking what kinds of designs could preserve or generate warmth. One everyday example was a mobile shelter that provides heat to passengers waiting at bus stops in winter. However, our group’s focus later shifted toward the rising global temperature, prioritising heat increase as a central theme.
Behaviour Mapping: the Garden
We visited the Walworth Community Garden on 5 November 2024 (around 3 p.m.) and observed gardeners preparing for winter. They rearranged and replanted pots while actively using the greenhouse equipped with grow lights. Meanwhile, animals like squirrels and birds collected fallen leaves to build their own insulating shelters.
Behaviour Mapping: the Bar
We later visited the Darkroom Bar at LCC (5 November 2024, 4:10–5:20 p.m.). Most visitors were seen removing their outerwear as the environment naturally retained heat. Rather than drinking, people tended to use this space as a warm refuge, seeking comfort and relaxation.
Bodystorming
Our group set up a speculative scenario: a near-future drought where participants must leave a shelter to collect water within a limited time. Failure to do so meant sacrificing their own body moisture.
While the idea was ambitious, the bodystorming process revealed that participants found the scenario and tools somewhat confusing. The abstract concept limited immersion, and participants struggled to understand their roles within the speculative environment, resulting in minimal actionable outcomes.
Interim Reflection
It became clear that our team needed to reassess focus whether to maintain the global warming theme or redirect. We questioned if our speculative drought scenario strayed too far from the brief’s intent. Future steps include refining observation goals, clarifying design purpose, and conducting additional research on climate-related futures to ground the next iteration.
Reference
- Bachelard, G. (1988) Air and Dreams: An Essay on the Imagination of Movement. Beacon Press.
- Singh, K. et al. (2019) ‘The architectural design of smart ventilation and drainage systems in termite nests’, Science Advances, 5, pp. 1–11. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aat8520
- Superflux (2021) ‘the Intersection’, Superflux. Available at: http://superflux.in/index.php/work/the-intersection/(Accessed: 22 October 2022).
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