Recontextualising Energy Demand from Socio-Ecological Practices

Technological rationalisation has definitively dissociated the management of comfort from its context. The "smartification" of spaces of everyday life has led to a technological setup capable of altering temperature, lighting, and ventilation to achieve a standard rather than a perceptive level of comfort. This "techno" functionalism, however, is neither neutral nor democratic. The widespread use of performative devices requires constant and significant energy demand, affecting the consumption system and its environmental and economic impacts. Moreover, the installation and maintenance of these systems are not universally available to all, promoting an unfair energy transition. A different design perspective is needed here: starting from the specificities of the local environment and observable human behaviour in the neighbourhood of Ostiense (Rome), the paper discusses alternative "somatic" comfort practices in indoor and public spaces. The contribution discusses the first results of workshops held with residents in different apartments, which qualify and spatialize the practices of comfort management, learning and representing three situations in hot summer, temperate summer and fresh winter, intertwining the human smart configuration of indoor spaces to optimise comfort appliances and local climate conditions.