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Paper short abstract

After an ‘upgrade’ in a housing estate in Cork in 2016-2017, which made homes more energy efficient, many residents complained that their homes were no longer comfortable. This paper presents the findings of ethnographic research which aims to understand residents’ perceptions of comfort and warmth.

Paper long abstract

Anthropologists are usually reluctant to explicitly identify ‘human universals’, but even the most circumspect of anthropologists cannot deny two fundamental facts which apply to all humans, of all cultures and eras: humans need nourishment and shelter. This paper addresses the latter of these universals. Specifically, it examines the concept of thermal comfort in relation to ongoing ethnographic research with the residents of a social housing estate in the city of Cork.

Following an ‘upgrade’ of the estate in 2016-2017, which made homes more efficient by replacing a superannuated gas boiler with modern heat pumps and installing insulation and double-glazed windows, many residents complained that their homes had become more uncomfortable. This paper presents the findings of ongoing collaborative research, between anthropologists and engineers, which examines residents' perceptions of comfort and warmth.

This paper puts the research into a broader context by examining how anthropologists have, and have not, considered the notion of thermal comfort. It also develops W. G. Hoskins’ idea of the ‘Great Rebuilding’, which describes the change that occurred in England, between the middle of the sixteenth century and the middle of the seventeenth century, whereby the majority of homes went from open, chimneyless halls to houses with multiple rooms, chimneys, ceilings and glazed windows. This paper proposes that a second ‘Great Rebuilding’ is currently underway in the West, exemplified by the ubiquity of, inter alia, double-glazing, central heating, electricity and indoor lavatories. The paper examines some of the concomitant social changes of this second ‘Great Rebuilding’.