Treble clef: notes on environmental comfort history

Abstract

Environmental Comfort as a scientific discipline in architecture has diffuse historical origins and its configuration over time can be characterized by stages signalled by different imageries. It is possible to identify such ideals from the Antiquity to the Enlightenment, in the context of the expansion of geographic and climatic horizons at the dawn of the Modern Age. The specificity of human confrontation with adverse climatic conditions as a scientifically systematized matter became evident in the late 19th century, as a response to issues put by colonialism and salubrism. In the middle of the 20th century, a wider knowledge of climatology and human physiology led to a less physical-deterministic and medical-hygienist oriented approach to environmental comfort techniques; even if not completely free from those values, clearly conditioned by modern architecture principles. This paper aims to present a brief history of the area of environmental comfort emphasising Brazilian architecture and urbanism.