An Approach to Human Adaptability towards its Built Environment: A Review

Abstract

This paper deals with the human adaptability to its built environment. The built environment as we know it rarely finds itself adapting to its surrounding context, whether it be on the level of interaction with humans or the climate. Humans and nature both are in a constant state of flux; moving, changing, sensing, and reacting to their context and information they gather and perceive. A barrier is formed between the built environment and humans and nature due to the fact that their inherent characteristics are utterly contrasting. It is com- monly estimated that persons in urban areas spend at least 80% of their time indoors. This suggests that the quality of the indoor environment can have a significant impact on comfort, health, and overall sense of well being. The indoor environment of buildings should thus be designed and controlled, as to provide a com- fortable and healthy space for occupants. In order to maintain the quality of the indoor environment, we me- chanically condition our buildings to achieve constant, uniform and comfortable environments. The mainte- nance of thermal equilibrium between the human body and its environment is one of the primary require- ments. History of thermal comfort and climate design shows a definite relation between them and research is needed to know “What are comfort conditions?” and “How buildings could adapt themselves to these condi- tions”.