Paper short abstract:

This provocation documents Douglas HK Lee’s Hot Room experiments (1937-1948), the methods he developed to study tropical heat in interwar Australia, and their contribution to a physiological theory of tropical housing focused on female fatigue.

Paper long abstract:

From 1937 to 1948, climate physiologist Douglas HK Lee designed and supervised the “Hot Room Experiments” at the University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australia). Seeking to identify and measure “physiological disturbances” caused by heat, the experiments exposed human subjects (male and female, active and sedentary) to tropical temperatures (humid and arid) for varying periods of time. In this provocation I will consider the methods used by Lee to study heat and the motivation for his project. Demonstrating the initial context of Lee’s experiments was the “Tropical Australia Question,” interwar concerns that the Australian tropics were unsuitable for settlement by communities from temperate climates, it will also be argued that the focus of Lee’s work was the tropical acclimatization of wives and mothers exposed to poorly designed homes and towns. Producing quantities of “scientific” data, the experiments also formed the foundations for a physiological (medical) theory of tropical housing focused on tropical fatigue or strain. While Lee’s contribution to tropical housing in Australia has been recognized, his connection to earlier debates on tropical settlement, the acclimatization of women, and tropical fatigue has yet to be considered