Thermal comfort in twentieth-century architectural heritage: Two houses of Le Corbusier and André Wogenscky

Abstract

The study of the relationship of climate and indoor thermal environments in architecture is essential to understand the inhabitants' sensory perception. This is even more relevant when working in the existing housing stock in view of the new challenges posed by the conservation of the 20th century architectural heritage and the adaption of these buildings to our current comfort and environmental criteria.

This article aims to develop a balanced understanding of the approach of Modernist architecture to climate, indoor atmospheres and inhabitants' thermal comfort. To do so, we complement the quantitative approach of environmental assessment methods with the qualitative angle of the history of sensory and architecture. The goal is to understand the environmental performance of architecture for dealing nowadays with thermal comfort issues while respecting its cultural and historical values. Two modernist houses have been selected as case studies: the Villa Curutchet of the master Le Corbusier and the Villa Chupin of his disciple André Wogenscky. As a result, the article reveals potentialities and constraints in terms of thermal comfort when working with Modern Architecture.

Key words： Thermal comfort; Twentieth-century heritage; Thermal simulation; Thermal atmo- spheres; Le Corbusier; Wogenscky