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Article ID: CBB001200733

Did the Little Ice Age Affect Indoor Climate and Comfort?: Re-theorizing Climate History and Architecture from the Early Modern Period (2013)

Eriksdotter, Gunhild (Author)

Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies
Volume: 13.2
Pages: 24--42
Publication date: 2013
Language: English

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Climate and climatology Architecture Heating; ventilation 16th century 18th century Early modern 17th century Europe

Climate always has a prominent role when constructing and designing buildings. Yet climate history and architecture is still a rather unexploited field of research. This is quite surprising since people, before central heating was introduced in the Northern Hemisphere, were more vulnerable to climate change and unpredictable weather situations. This article discusses how a historical climate change like the Little Ice Age (c. 1500-1900) affected indoor climate and comfort in contemporaneous buildings. The cooling period was particularly noticeable in Northern Europe from 1550 to 1720, when the inhabitants faced significantly longer heating periods than before. Since people did not have the same possibility to control the indoor climate as in our day, we can assume that many more architectural elements than heating sources interacted in order to create comfortable spaces. By illustrating with both theoretical and empirical examples, the purpose of this essay is to visualize how climate not only operated as a catalyst for technical innovations and architectural alterations but also as a tool by linking status to comfort during the early modern period. The idea is to give some insights how to re-vitalize archaeological and architectural studies by integrating climate history as one dynamic variable when approaching historical buildings and remains.

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