The same room in different countries

A study by Thapa compared adaptive thermal comfort in naturally ventilated classrooms, offices and homes in two places that share a climate classification and nothing else, without giving the number of occupants surveyed in either: temperate oceanic Europe, where the classification comes from high latitude, and Darjeeling in the Himalayas, where it comes from altitude. 80% of European occupants were comfortable between 21.2 and 24.8 °C. In Darjeeling the same share was comfortable between 16.0 and 21.6. Clothing insulation varied significantly more in Darjeeling, at a mean rank of 2,103.31 against 1,207.30 in Europe, at p below 0.001, and indoor temperature tracked outdoor temperature more closely there. Darjeeling’s band sits 5.2 °C lower at the bottom and 3.2 °C lower at the top.

The lighting researcher Claudia Moscoso ran the same virtual reality experiment in Norway, Switzerland and Greece, with 150, 118 and 138 participants, varying window size, room size, the use of the space and the sky outside, and asking for eight ratings on an eleven-point scale. Regional differences showed up in how pleasant and how calm the same rooms felt. Between Greece and Norway the difference was significant at every window size tested. Between Greece and Switzerland it was significant for the medium and large windows. On spaciousness, participants in Greece rated the small space as more spacious than participants in Switzerland did, with an increase of up to 7% in their ratings, in the paper’s own wording.

The social work researcher Fengyan Tang followed 2,550 older Chinese immigrants living in 170 Chicago census tracts from 2011 to 2020, with repeated measures of loneliness matched to neighbourhood data on walkability, amenities, open space and public transit. Loneliness in this group was low at baseline and declined significantly over time. The coefficient on transit stops was −0.003 at baseline and 0.001 on the slope: more stops meant less loneliness at the start and a slower decline afterwards. Longer block lengths went with higher loneliness at the start, at 0.005. Social networks, perceived social support, social engagement and sense of community were all tested as mediators and none of them mediated anything.

The architecture researcher Anbang Dai analysed the aesthetic judgments of Chinese observers to test whether the Western preference for curved contours, high ceilings and open spaces holds elsewhere. Chinese observers preferred high ceilings and open spaces in the same direction. The paper is a preprint on OSF, has not been through peer review, and reports no sample size in the version available here.

A survey by Bello questioned about 100 office occupants in mid-rise buildings in Abuja and combined that with observation of exemplar buildings. 82% found front-facing facades, well lit and shaded, highly comfortable, against 61% reporting discomfort on rear-facing ones. Natural materials such as wood, stone and brick and light colour schemes drew strongly positive responses, and glass and concrete neutral or negative ones. Around 70% reported a strong positive effect from local patterns, materials and shading on their satisfaction.

Moscoso’s 406 participants across three countries are the only sample here designed to compare cultures under identical conditions. Tang followed 2,550 people for nine years and reports a null on every mediator tested. Thapa pooled field data from two regions. Bello gives the sample as approximately 100 and does not state it exactly. Dai’s paper is a preprint.