ABSTRACT
Buildings standards and regulations are always of their time, written to protect the property and health of populations in response to events and inventions, like fires, plagues or technological revolutions. The evolution of modern comfort standards and rating systems is reviewed, touching on the role of the building services professions in pushing comfort standards towards ever more inflexible and tight indoor temperature ranges requiring mechanical heating, cooling and ventilating systems to be met in practice. Such standards and rating systems have led to a generation of buildings that are often over-serviced and poorly designed for local climates, increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and decreasing the resilience of modern buildings to challenges like climate change and pandemics. Alternative standards are described that enable occupants to enjoy comfort within a far wider temperature bands, and importantly to naturally ventilate them. New thinking and solutions for better standards are outlined. The 1900s was the century of the mechanical building, but if humanity is to cope with climate change, the 21st century must be largely about natural energy buildings topped up with mechanical heating and cooling only when needed, and for this radical new comfort standards are needed.
