Advertisement for “Winter Air Conditioning” in the US Ladies’ Home Journal from February 1948, promising "clean filtered air - humidified for health - at just the right temperature - and circulated without any drafts." © Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
When low-cost micro ACs launched on American and European markets more than 50 years ago, they radically altered the architecture and design of households, buildings and settlements. They also changed forms of sociability and mobility, becoming closely tied to notions of status, health and well-being. These find their common thread in the concept of comfort – an idea that vitality, well-being, and ultimately even life itself can be produced by an ideal balance between organisms or bodies and their surroundings.
All around the globe, and especially in urban contexts, cryogenic infrastructures and technologies are increasingly being used to make life more productive and active through the creation of well-tempered environments. However, their widespread (over)use produces significant CO2 emissions and excessive waste heat, thereby contributing to urban heat waves that have become a serious mortality factor with uneven affects upon at-risk and poorer populations.