Teaching comfort: Critical approaches, digital interventions and contemporary choices

Teaching an appreciation of comfort through an understanding of environmental design to students of building related professions in higher education has been a central part of the academic syllabus from the mid-20th century. The link between addressing environmental design in buildings; comprising, lighting, thermal comfort, and acoustics, was seen as a clear contribution to ensuring successfully designed and planned buildings. This approach to understanding and evaluating comfort has however seen significant transformation. This is particularly true over the recent decades where the entire concept of comfort has been revised; from its meaning to its standards of measurement. In this chapter we review our understanding of comfort in the 21st century and also how our teaching has been framed by a common understanding of comfort and the need to engage with a diverse, international student base in our teaching of comfort concepts, utilising various contemporary pedagogic tools and methods.