Comfort in architecture, what is it and how does it improve our well-being?

The term "comfort" is a Gallicism whose meaning can be equated to the concept of well-being, although in general terms it encompasses broader concepts such as health. It generally refers to an ideal state of man that implies a situation of well-being, health, and comfort in which there is no distraction or discomfort in the environment that disturbs users physically or mentally. Therefore, it is also important to seek comfort in architecture.

Comfort parameters

Comfort parameters are those conditions inherent to the place that affect the sensations of the occupants. These sensations or ways of perceiving the environment can be classified into:

Environmental parameters

Environmental parameters are very important as they have a direct influence on people's physical sensations and the environmental characteristics of a space. The most prominent are:

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• Dry air temperature
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• Relative humidity
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• Average air speed
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Dry air temperature

The dry air temperature is understood as the temperature of the air, disregarding the heating radiation of the objects surrounding that specific environment, the effects of relative humidity, and air movements. The air temperature is one of the main parameters for determining the degree of thermal comfort of a space and basically refers to the thermal state of the air in the shade. To determine if people feel cold or hot in a place, temperature and humidity data must be available. Additionally, with this data, it can be determined whether a specific space in the home or the home in general stays within appropriate ranges or not.

Relative humidity

Relative humidity greatly affects thermal sensation. It is one of the parameters that can be directly influenced by applying a series of corrections in the design or by incorporating certain conditioning systems. It is understood as the amount of water contained in the air, so if its value is high during a hot day, it can negatively affect the thermal sensation inside a space as it hinders people from losing heat through water evaporation via sweat. However, if this relative humidity percentage is very low, the body also responds negatively as it can become dehydrated. In general, appropriate relative humidity values vary from winter to summer and adopt different values according to the type of building, its spaces, and the activities being carried out there.

Average air speed

For conditioning a home, air speed is a very valuable parameter, as it produces currents that can be utilized to cool or heat spaces. However, it is important to keep in mind that, depending on the air speed and its origin reaching the interior, these currents can be more of a nuisance than an advantage, especially in winter. If the air temperature is below skin temperature, the speed will cause a heat loss that will create a sensation of freshness, but if it’s the other way around, the body will take heat from the air. Additionally, air speed is a pre-existing environmental factor that can help reduce humidity and favor ventilation of the home, modifying, with its frequency and strength, the thermal sensation of people.

Architectural parameters

Psychological aspects interact with thermal, lighting, acoustic, and olfactory factors of a specific space creating our ability to adapt to it in what can be defined as architectural comfort. For example, the lack of physiological thermal and lighting comfort can be compensated through the visual factors involved in the design of spaces, such as the management of colors, textures, spaces, volumes, voids, solids, etc. On the other hand, the degree of acoustic discomfort or olfactory decreases as the location or direct visual perception of the contaminating source is lost; for example, if a narrow but dense vegetation barrier is placed to obstruct the view between a noisy avenue and a building, it is possible that people's perception of noise decreases even though the intensity levels decrease insignificantly. Similarly, the lack of comfort drastically increases if the source of contamination is visually perceived.