Gradients of Comfort
R. Múdry (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
S. Stalker – Mentor (TU Delft - Teachers of Practice / A)
E.P.N. Schreurs – Mentor (TU Delft - Situated Architecture)
J.W. Lafeber – Mentor (TU Delft - Teachers of Practice / AE+T)
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Abstract
Gradients of Comfort explores how architecture might propose a more layered and adaptive understanding of comfort - one that acknowledges its fragility, but sees in that fragility the potential for richer sensory experience and more resilient public architecture. Today, comfort is typically defined in absolute terms, where anything outside a narrow band marked on comfort charts is labeled as undesired. This view is embedded in the logic of contemporary building practice, where systems for heating, cooling, lighting, and ventilation are treated as secondary, yet necessary add-ons - mechanical and concealed, but ultimately dominant in shaping spatial experience. In existing structures this often results in unsustainable technical solutions and economic strain.
Set in Hoboken, Antwerp, the project proposes the transformation of the former can factory known as Blikfabriek into permanent public and educational spaces. It asks how architecture can engage with existing conditions - rather than overwrite them - and how comfort might become a medium of negotiation between body and environment, rather than a fixed standard. In this way, the project contributes to the Urban Architecture graduation studio’s broader inquiry into how the halfway city might retain its civic dynamics and remain open to public life, even as the move toward permanence becomes inevitable.