An ethnographic study of latent thermal pleasure in the tradition of desert climate architecture

The architectural tradition of the desert climate has both hidden and hidden teachings. The creation of rich sensory spaces is one of the gifts that the architecture of this context offers to its inhabitants. A considerable part of human sensory experiences in different spaces is formed by heat. Heat, like other sensory stimuli, can contribute to the richness of human perception of the environment and, in addition to the quantity of temperature, create a quality as pleasure. The concept of thermal pleasure is a quality that defines a satisfactory and positive human perception of thermal conditions in a specific space. How the concept of thermal pleasure is formed in the context of traditional desert architecture and how its occupants perceive it is a subject that has not been studied so far. So this the present study explores how "thermal pleasure" creates in the tradition of desert architecture. This research uses ethnographic method based on qualitative methodology. So, in order to discover and understand “how thermal pleasure is created”, using of interview technique and direct observation, it explores the lived experiences of individuals in the traditional desert architecture, which is considerable rich context. A comparison between the extracted codes and their analysis shows that "thermal distinction" between neighboring environments results in a thermal pleasure experience for individuals. In a situation where people are out of the temperature equilibrium, due to the interaction between climate and architectural space, facing a special thermal space that can return them to the thermal equilibrium, creates a thermal pleasure for them. The concept of thermal distinction in the interaction between the three rings of human, architecture and climate, makes a commonality to provide an opportunity to understand the thermal pleasure. The adjacency of spaces with thermal distinction, have a higher potential to create thermal pleasure in the tradition of desert architecture. Therefore, creating adjacent spaces with a specific thermal distinction is a latent pattern that can guide future designs to enrich the sensory landscape of heat.