The Comfort Project: Histories and Building Services

larcb2054  2025-2026  Bruxelles Saint-Gilles

The Comfort Project: Histories and Building Services
The version you’re consulting is not final. This course description may change. The final version will be published on 1st June.
3.00 credits
30.0 h
Q1
Language
French
Main themes
The course aims to re-establish the centrality of physiological comfort in architecture by exploring the cultural reasons and material implications of integrating active and passive systems into design projects. Through an interdisciplinary approach that bridges sensory and material considerations, the course examines the role of comfort and energy throughout architectural history—from ancient bioclimatic strategies to the integration of technical systems in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Historical tools—ranging from the history of architecture and construction to the evolution of sensibilities—are employed to critically analyze today’s built heritage and contemporary paradigms for its preservation.
Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

  • Recognize the significance of physiological comfort in the history of architecture,
  • Articulate the implications of climate and energy considerations in shaping architectural projects,
  • Analyze and discuss the evolution and contemporary role of comfort building services in architecture, focusing on the interplay between conservative (passive systems) and regenerative (active systems) techniques,
  • Evaluate and critique the material, constructive, formal, and spatial impacts of integrating comfort systems into architectural design.

General Learning Outcomes

In line with the program’s learning outcomes (LOs), this course contributes to the development and acquisition of the following LOs:
  • LO2.5 Inventively represent a creative process.
  • LO2.6 Proficiently depict environmental, social, and economic phenomena.
  • LO4.3 Understand and integrate the content of other artistic or scientific disciplines to enrich the architectural project.
  • LO4.4 Understand and assess the environmental, social, and economic consequences of architectural choices.
  • LO6.1 Acquire and rigorously apply disciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary methods of scientific research.
 
 
Faculty or entity
> LOCI


Programmes / formations proposant cette unité d'enseignement (UE)

Title of the programme
Sigle
Credits
Prerequisites
Learning outcomes
Master [120] in Architecture (Tournai)
ARCT2M
3
Master [120] in Architecture (Bruxelles)
ARCB2M
3