Louvain Research Institute for Landscape, Architecture and the Built Environment (LAB), Psychological Sciences Research Institute (IPSY)

Challenges

Reducing energy and in particular heating consumption in buildings is crucial to achieving our decarbonisation targets. Unfortunately, improving energy efficiency through renovation or technological advancements is slowed by several systemic obstacles: urban planning, heritage, logistics, human and financial resources, etc. Consequently other avenues, more specifically those focusing on energy sufficiency, need to be explored. Sufficiency refers to reducing energy consumption through changes in social practices (Wiese, 2024). Slowheat explores the potential of changing our perception of thermal comfort and our relationship with heating systems: eschewing the anaesthesia of the body as offered by modernity (Boni, 2019) to rediscover the pleasure arising from the contrast of non-neutral environments, also known as thermal alliesthesia (Dear, 2010), and empowerment through the development and control of effective comfort strategies and heating technologies.

UCLouvain’s contribution

While the idea of applying heat or cold directly to the body is not new, until now it had only been studied in laboratories, without experiments in uncontrolled situations. Furthermore, this idea had not yet been studied from an interdisciplinary perspective (engineering, architecture and sociology). UCLouvain’s contribution in this field is therefore crucial as a link between fundamental science, applied science, and dissemination of research results to society.