UBC Graduate Research

Microclimates of Luxury McGill, Garrett

Abstract

Design has forever addressed issues rooted in climate mitigation, yet the sweeping use of fossil fuel heating and air-conditioning has allowed designers to ignore natural design parameters of sun exposure, wind direction, and climate. Our bodies continually produce excessive heat, our skin which hovers around 34°C must continually expel heat to the environment to cool down. For this to happen, our environment must be cooler than we are, roughly between 21°C and 28°C. This ideal temperature range, historically found outside in the ambient air temperature, is at risk of disappearing. MIRCOCLIMATES OF LUXURY confronts the challenges of extreme heat with a review of historical landscape typologies known for their thermal comfort. Inspired by passive cooling techniques, the project presents a speculative design for Anna Wintour’s Long Island summer home, focused on the body’s interaction with heat transfer and material properties. The work repositions private residential commissions not as a retreat from public responsibility, but as a space for urgent experimentation at scale, where theory and practice are actively engaged. It concludes not as a finished product, but as a manifesto in progress for a post grad school career, driven by a desire to accelerate learning through making and to re-frame climate as a design medium.

Item Citations and Data

Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International