I explore the dynamic relationship between architecture and the rapidly changing climate. I’m particularly interested in cultural expectations of comfort — and in how those expectations are changing dramatically as the world overheats.
These ideas are developed in my book Modern Architecture and Climate (2020), the essay “After Comfort” (2019), and the ongoing series After Comfort: A User’s Guide, as well as through other publications and projects, including Terms and Conditions, an uncomfortable room designed for the Arsenale at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale (2025).
I am Professor and Chair of Architectural History and Theory at the Eindhoven University of Technology, where I teach studios and lecture courses and run a research team on Architecture History and Decarbonisation. I am part of a number of collaborative writing and editing projects aiming to support engaged research that has tangible impact on how we can live differently in the built environment.
Seen in the video clip above, an installation commissioned for the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale (May 10 – November 23, 2025). With Thomas Auer, Dehlia Hannah, Sonia Seviranante, and many others, we designed an uncomfortable room. Air conditioners spun and hummed, but visitors felt only the waste heat, not the cool side of the device. Viewers were confronted with the inequities of thermal comfort. Review available here.
Co-directed with Nick Axel and the After Comfort: A User’s Guide team: a video documenting the transition to an updated heating and cooling system at Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam. Commissioned for the IABR–International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, 2024. Will be exhibited at the Architekturmuseum der TUM, Munich, November 19, 2026 – May 23, 2027.
An ongoing series of essays and projects on e-flux Architecture, exploring how to live comfortably indoors without fossil fuels. Commissioned essays by Michelle Addington, TEd’A arquitectes, Ksenia Litvinenko, Dehlia Hannah, Kate Wagner, Mal Ahern, Florian Idenburg, Marc Angélil, Nausheen Anwar, Aleksandra Kędziorek, and many others. Co-edited with Jeannette Kuo, Ola Uduku, Thomas Auer, and Nick Axel.
A new book series at University of Minnesota Press examining the historical interdependencies of built environments and constructed ecologies. Co-edited with Namita Vijay Dharia, Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi, Peg Rawes, and Ikem Stanley Okoye.
An annual dossier of essays on e-flux Architecture critically analysing media and design in light of the accumulation of material, waste, anxiety, and almost everything else. Essays explore how images of accumulation help open up the climate to cultural inquiry and political mobilization. Commissioned essays by Kathryn Yusoff, T.J. Demos, Emily Apter, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Nicole Starosielski, Adam Bobbette, Macarena Gómez-Barris, Bruno Latour, Gökçe Günel, and many others.
Part of the roundtable “Energy and ‘Green Building’ Since the 1970s.”
Co-written with Fatma Al Alawi and Michelle Addington.
For the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
Working in the Northern neighborhoods of Marseille, this Graduation Studio asks how increasing climate instability and economic inequity reshape the project and process of architecture. Drawing on local knowledge and global discussions of sufficiency and efficiency, we explore how architecture can drive behavioral and cultural change to reduce absolute energy demand. Co-taught with Katja Hogenboom.
This required Master level course, co-taught with Katja Hogenboom, Cristina Nan, and Sean Hendley, has two primary aims. First, to provide students with an understanding of contemporary architectural and urban discourse. Recent guest lectures have been presented by Billy Fleming, Marina Otero, Aleksandra Kędziorek, Albena Yaneva, Janna Bystrykh, Sven-Olov Wallenstein, and others. The second aim is to support students to consider and engage concepts and ideas that connect their design ambitions to pressing social concerns.
Advanced archival, conceptual and design-based research focused on how historical methods can be reimagined to support the urgent imperative for decarbonising the built environment. Details here.
For research collaborations, press inquiries, speaking invitations, or other questions, get in touch by email.
If your inquiry relates to the Cohabitations book series (University of Minnesota Press), please write directly to cohabitations@proton.me.
If your inquiry concerns PhD studies in History and Decarbonisation, note that applications are due in the spring, as here.