This symposium asks what comfort, sustainability and adaptability mean for locally specific and culturally embedded forms of architecture as climate change pushes our planet into a period of major transformation. This first session will explore various ways of defining, understanding, measuring, modelling and influencing thermal comfort in vernacular architectural contexts. It will include analyses of heating, cooling and ventilation methods across various ecological, social, temporal and spatial locations, as well as discussing the adaptation of vernacular buildings in response to climate change. The second part of the symposium will examine concepts of ecological sustainability and innovation in relation to contemporary vernacular architecture. This will include discussion of ecologically oriented approaches and smart construction techniques, as well as innovative material and structural adaptations taking place in response to climate change. Questions of access, regulation and sustainability in relation to natural construction materials will also be addressed, as will issues relating to maintenance, adaptive reuse, life cycle analysis and the use of hi-tech research methods such as thermal simulation and 3D modelling.
Bringing experts from natural science, social science and technical backgrounds together to reflect on these topics allows for situated, discipline-specific analyses while also opening space for the generation of interdisciplinary and comparative insights into the status and prospects of vernacular architecture in the Anthropocene. The event will focus primarily on the Alps and the Himalayas, but research from other mountainous regions and different bioclimatic zones will provide vital comparative scope. Similarly, while the temporal focus looks from the present day towards the future, historical perspectives are also welcome.