Residents’ thermal comfort in Swedish newly built homes: political aesthetics and atmospheric practices

Abstract

This paper draws on a case study of newly constructed passive houses in Sweden and explores how architecture and the material influence everyday life. We suggest the new aesthetics as a potential theoretical tool for understanding user experiences of low-energy housing, an approach that considers how atmospheres are produced and consumed, by whom and by what means. We approach passive house designs as the materialisation of environmental sustainability, facilitating the fulfilment of long-term goals for energy efficiency and renewable materials. In our case study, apartment designs involving lofts, timber and extensive glazing sometimes conflicted with the passive house concept once the residents had settled in their homes. Some designs, for example lofts, failed to facilitate comfortable everyday life, while designs with renewable materials enhanced a homely atmosphere. We propose to acknowledge the labour that is required by the residents of these buildings to create thermal comfort at home.

Keywords:

• residents
• passive house designs
• low-energy homes
• thermal comfort practices
• sustainability
• political aesthetics

1. Introduction: residents as co-designers of energy-efficient housing

Everyday life in dwellings designed as passive houses may play a role in fulfilling environmental aspects of sustainability (Brunsgaard, Heiselberg, et al., 2012; Brunsgaard, Knudstrup, et al., 2012; Foster et al., 2016; Isaksson, 2009; Karresand, 2014; Mlecnik et al., 2012; Niskanen, 2018; Zhao & Carter, 2020). With airtight, well-insulated building envelopes and a minimum of central heating, so-called passive houses are capable of passing the highest building performance requirements in Sweden. To pass for a passive house certification the energy demand must be 15 kWh/m^2. or less (Niskanen, 2018). Low-energy buildings, like passive houses, are however not certain to reach the energy goals set at the design and planning stages, a phenomenon known as the energy performance gap (Brom et al., 2018; Gram-Hanssen & Georg, 2018; Sunikka-Blank & Galvin, 2012) The research presented in this paper aims to foreground passive house residents, designs and materials in Vallastaden neighbourhood, in the city of Linköping, Sweden. Vallastaden was planned for environmental sustainability, and aimed for the highest energy performance certificates (A and B) as well as to include a great variety in architecture and materials. In our research, we focused on the residents living in homes designed as passive houses, although the mandatory energy performance certificates show a range from A to D certificates (Boverket, 2023). These residents had not taken any actions to hold developers or construction companies accountable for energy performance failures since some developers had been decommissioned and for the majority of residents living in co-operative housing, it is the responsibility of the board to deal with such tasks. Instead, the residents tried to cope with thermal comfort issues in their everyday lives, something which this paper aims to explore in more detail. The more specific aim of this paper is to understand how residents in homes designed as passive houses developed relations to the architecture, materials and technologies and how we can understand these relations as aesthetic qualities of thermal comfort.

Thermal comfort, domestic space heating and cooling are more than background phenomena; they constitute a foundation for all activities carried out at home and are prerequisites for being able to relax and ultimately get enough rest and sleep (Madsen, 2018a). Thermal comfort is an interdisciplinary field, and even a focus on the social science parts of the field includes a great variety of theoretical approaches (Gram-Hanssen & Georg, 2018). For example, thermal comfort is addressed within, science and technology studies (STS) (Hargreaves et al, 2018), social practice theory (Hansen et al, 2018; Madsen, 2018b), and reflexive sociology (Sunikka-Blank et al, 2018). Still, there is a call for continuously adding to our understanding of ‘the messiness of everyday work and homemaking practices’ (Gram-Hanssen & Georg, 2018, p. 7) so as to include residents’ senses of thermal comfort in research analysis (Madsen & Gram-Hanssen, 2017; Royston, 2014). Aesthetics have previously not been given much attention (Pink et al 2013), and the new aesthetics (Böhme, 2018) could potentially facilitate an inclusion of design and senses in research analysis.

Issues pertaining to unexpected high energy use and user thermal comfort in low-energy buildings have been addressed in previous studies (Ford et al., 2022; Lomas & Porritt, 2017; Renström, 2019; Sunikka-Blank & Galvin, 2012). In Germany, low-energy buildings often experience a rebound effect and more energy is used for residents’ thermal comfort than what has been calculated in the design phase (Sunikka-Blank & Galvin, 2012). The performance of passive houses in Germany is more complex, having a larger range and depending on building size. Generally, residents in more energy-efficient housing tended to use more energy than what has been estimated upon the energy performance ratings of their homes. Gram-Hanssen & Georg (2018) foregrounded the importance of how materials, practices and technologies in buildings are aligned to facilitate energy efficient performance in buildings.

Design practices, as well as practices in construction, installation and occupation, matter to various degrees over the life cycle of a building (Brunsgaard, Heiselberg, et al., 2012). Sunikka-Blank et al. (2018) reported on a great variety of habits, skills and attitudes among residents living in low energy housing. Social housing tenants who had been excluded from decisions and installations of materials and technologies, were not given the prerequisites to learn and understand how to operate and manage the new energy systems, resulting in tenants’ frustration and higher energy use than anticipated by designers and property owners. Sunikka-Blank et al. (2018, p. 121) have suggested that ‘designers’ expectations failed to take into account the reality of the tenants’ domestic life and capacities’. Tenants, as well as home-owners in the study by Brunsgaard, Heiselberg, et al. (2012), prioritised their safety and convenience over instructions from the architect to solve overheating with open windows during the nights. Instead, tenants chose to purchase electrical devices such as fans and portable air conditioners. How tenants would understand and engage with the mechanical ventilation systems did not align with how designers anticipated the use of technology. In a similar vein, manuals with written instructions on how to use (for example) thermostats and ventilation systems are presumably written by men, and for men. The need for details also differed between individuals, with gender, educational background and socio-economic status being circumstances that seemed to influence what the tenants required. Some tenants preferred brief instructions, while others expressed an appreciation of the option to delve deeper into how the technology was supposed to function.

Previous studies have shown a correlation between the energy performance of the building and energy use by the residents, indicating the influence of the material and technology in daily life (Sunikka-Blank & Galvin, 2012; Hansen et al, 2018). Clothes, thermostats, indoor air temperature, opening of windows and thermal comfort expectations are all part of an intricate heterogenous fabric shaping energy consumption in housing. Ford et al (2022) suggested that social, environmental and agency factors all influence thermal comfort expectations. Residents are negotiating thermal comfort in their everyday life and more individualised and ‘tailored’ designs proved to facilitate acceptance of thermal comfort fluctuations (Hitchings 2022; Murtagh et al. 2022). Some contemporary low-energy architecture ‘design in’ electrical ventilation and air-conditioning, and ‘design out’ control of residents (Ford et al., 2022; Zhao & Carter, 2020).

Seasonal changes have previously been addressed by for example Hitchings et al. (2015), Madsen (2018b) and Pink et al. (2013). The cultural, local and individual aspects of thermal comfort were acknowledged in this research. Summer thermal comfort in passive houses can be an issue (Brunsgaard, Heiselberg, et al., 2012; Brunsgaard, Knudstrup, et al., 2012; Mlecnik et al., 2012). Madsen (2018b) described how homeowners consciously chose a north-facing direction of their house, to avoid overheating. Residents’ choices also involved curtains, floors, opening of windows, thermostats and the use of candle lights in negotiating indoor thermal comfort practices. Airing through windows was often perceived as necessary despite the mechanical ventilation that was designed to be sufficient for indoor air (Hauge, 2013).

In an ethnographic study of design, thermal comfort and home as a place in motion, Pink et al (2013) showed how the home and thermal comfort were constantly made temporally and seasonally by young and older members of the family. Brom et al. (2018) found that building characteristics in the Netherlands influenced the energy use of elderly more than that of younger residents. Single, high-income households used the least energy, probably since they spent less time at home. High-income families in housing with an A energy certificate were among the high-energy consumers in the Dutch context. Studies of residents in Sweden showed that perceived control over indoor thermal comfort, made residents more satisfied (Hagejärd et al., 2021; Henning, 2020; Renström, 2019). Communication between management and residents also played a role in user satisfaction. Some studies (Hagejärd et al., 2021; Hansen et al., 2019) found that women were more dissatisfied than men.

The focus on heating of buildings in temperate climate zones has overshadowed thermal comfort issues and backgrounded issues of cooling (Lomas & Porritt, 2017). Building designs in these climates have also in the past considered residents’ access to daylight, rather than taking excess solar heating through windows into account. Vulnerable residents are particularly prone to suffer from overheating at home and in buildings generally. Designers of homes and building infrastructure have a professional role in suggesting designs and solutions to facilitate low-energy living (Wade et al 2018). Architects could influence the direction of building orientation, windows, wall-designs and shading, while for example heat installers often make decisions about details on where radiators, thermostats and other building energy system devices should be placed. The interface of heating controls becomes part of the material in homes, but communication to the residents about them is sometimes infused with haste and prejudice and not prioritised by the installers (Wade et al., 2017). Aesthetics, ‘visually beautiful homes’ (Wade et al., 2018, p. 50), was considered by these professionals, but the study’s authors also proposed that the interaction between architects and heat installers must ‘be extended beyond beauty, comfort and cost’ to achieve more energy-efficient homes.

In Sweden, passive houses are often marketed as ordinary homes, and there are no specific requirements for owning or living in one (Isaksson, 2009; Karresand, 2014; Niskanen, 2018). Rather, the advantages of low energy demand for heating the house and the reduced noise from outside are promoted by property brokers. Thus, passive houses potentially have a certain aesthetic atmosphere, as well as being energy efficient and environmentally sustainable. To analyse how the residents perceive thermal comfort in the Vallastaden passive houses, we deploy Böhme’s (1993, 1998) ‘new aesthetics’ approach and the concept ‘aesthetics of atmospheres’.

The remainder of this article is structured as follows. Firstly, we provide a section on our theoretical approach. We then present our research methods and material in more detail. The section that follows is dedicated to the results and we conclude by discussing the aesthetics of atmospheres in our case study homes.

2. Theoretical approach: the new aesthetics and architecture

In this section, we outline our theoretical perspective on resident co-action in creating atmospheres in housing. On the basis of preceding literature, we argue that the concepts of aesthetics (also political aesthetics) and of atmosphere provide a suitable interpretive framework for the empirical material which we subsequently present regarding Swedish resident co-action in implementing (or counteracting) the design intentions with energy-efficient housing.

Aesthetics in architecture and design has a profound political influence on private spaces and ordinary lives (Böhme, 2017a, 2017b) and goes beyond the simple beautification of life (Böhme, 1998). How we feel at home can influence our thoughts and actions, our relationships to others, our wellbeing (Griffero, 2014) and generally how our practices are shaped and evolve over time (Bille & Hauge, 2022; Bille & Simonsen, 2021). The new aesthetics acknowledges both the direct influence of design, materials, shapes and the spaces and spatialities they create, and the intentions of architects, builders and designers. Users and residents are also viewed as co-creators in dynamic processes of designing buildings and our built environment. Taking all this into account, we approach the aesthetics of atmospheres and its relation to the spatial (Böhme, 1993, 1998):

The aesthetics of atmospheres shifts attention away from the ‘what’ something represents, to the ‘how’ something is present. In this way, sensory perception as opposed to judgment is rehabilitated in aesthetics and the term ‘aesthetic’ is restored to its original meaning, namely the theory of perception. […] Aesthetics thus becomes the study of the relations between ambient qualities and states of mind, and its particular object consists in spaces and spatiality. (Böhme, 1998, p. 114).

The strong spatial component in the conception of atmospheres in the work by Böhme brings architecture, design and home to the fore (Böhme, 2017a, 2018): ‘[…] the way people feel in rooms and spaces, how they move around, how they can follow bodies and lines of buildings is the main point of interest’ for researchers and practitioners’ (Böhme, 2017a, p. 5). Thus, architecture and design together tune the spaces we use and might include manipulation with political motives (Böhme, 2018).

Labour is required to achieve relations between ambient qualities and states of mind, and the political is part of how these relations are organised and accomplished. This labour may be continuous throughout the lifetime of a building and part of the everyday lives of residents; or it may consist of previous efforts and work that is limited in time, undertaken by planners and architects (Easthope et al., 2020). This attention to ‘making’ and providing conditions for aesthetic atmospheres at home has also been developed by Pink & Leder Mackley (2016) and through the concept of ‘staging’ (Bille et al., 2015; Böhme, 1998). Bille & Simonsen (2021) propose the concept of ‘atmospheric practices’ to complement the purely sensory notion of atmosphere and include what is done by for example residents. Bille & Simonsen (2021) point out the tendency in literature on atmospheres to ‘exaggerate the passive side of emotional spatiality and undervalue how both emotions and atmospheres are also something people do’ (Bille & Simonsen, 2021, p. 305). In this study, we acknowledge activities and practices as key to understanding atmospheres and turn to Böhme’s (1998) idea of ‘production’ as a concept for highlighting people’s doings: ‘Atmospheres are produced through deliberate arrangements’ (Böhme, 1998, p. 112). Such productions are not neutral, but political actions and manifestations of power (Jacobs, 2006; Rose et al., 2010).

The aesthetics of atmospheres at home has been subject to explorations in the strands of academic literature referred to as geographies of architecture (Bille, 2015a; Jacobs, 2006; Jacobs & Smith, 2008; Jacobs & Merriman, 2011), design (Sumartojo & Pink, 2019), light (Bille, 2015b; Ebbensgaard & Edensor, 2021) and home (Blunt, 2005; Blunt & Dowling, 2022; Sysiö, 2023). This literature has a shared understanding of living beings and the material as interlaced in socio-material constellations conveyed as technologies, buildings and systems for provision of services such as energy, in a togetherness called ‘home’. The visual has hitherto dominated research on atmospheres, but other bodily experiences of place should be acknowledged (Böhme, 2014). Böhme suggests that the attention should be directed towards ‘co-presences’, ‘in-betweenness’ and how atmospheres ‘fill’ the spaces that are, in this view, never void or empty (Böhme, 1993). The bodily experience of indoor air would be a tangible example of how a range of different materials and elements fill a space and co-produce atmospheres. These particular atmospheres are also dynamic, as they can shift radically from day to night, and over the year. In a country like Sweden with highly noticeable seasonal changes, indoor atmospheres conspicuously follow the seasons in terms of temperature and thermal comfort. Passive house designs may potentially counteract these seasonal changes, if the designs are made with respect to the elements and surrounding environment to keep heat out in summer and cold out in winter.

Anderson (2014) and Leff (2021) have claimed that the concept of atmospheres as presented by Böhme (1993, 2017a, 2018) fails to incorporate accurate theoretical notions of bodies. Similarly, Rose et al. (2010, p. 343) have called for a ‘richer sense of subjectivity’ in geographies of affect. Drawing on Ahmed (2007–2008), Anderson (2014) discusses how atmospheres are always experienced subjectively and from potentially endless angles. Leff (2021) turns to Ahmed (2015) and Brennan (2004) for understandings informed by feminist theory of how bodies, the political and material should be included in atmospheric thinking about space with the aim of understanding how ‘the uneven circulation of affective atmospheres constitutes political possibilities’ (Leff, 2021, p. 2). Rose et al. (2010) urge researchers to be open for the complex, multiple and ambiguous in human relations to buildings. Similar to the buildings studied by Rose et al. (2010), passive houses in Vallastaden are assembled in ‘specific ways, as are the bodies inside them’ (Rose et al., 2010, p. 341).

Related to atmospheres is the notion of the ecstasy of things, which can be understood as how the material influences the atmosphere through creating relations (Böhme, 1993):

[…] the way in which a thing steps out of itself and into the surrounding space, where it becomes palpably present […] and, through its appearance as presence, generates an atmosphere […] ecstasies concern the ways in which things affect space, in other words, what they emanate. (Engels-Schwarzpaul, 2020, p. 8–10)

Bille (2015a, p. 264) expressed this in ontological terms: ‘Atmospheres are relations’. Through the ecstasies of things – and, we would argue, also humans and other living beings – relations are established and ultimately make up the atmosphere of a place. According to Bille, objects are in themselves ecstasies and express themselves through their ecstasies. Bille (2015a) writes: ‘It is precisely in the contact between the ecstasies of entities, bodies and affects that the constitution of the world is presenced to the observer as an actual fact. It is through atmospheres that cosiness, irony, gatherings, politics, power, morality, etc., take form’ (Bille, 2015a, p 268). Atmospheres might be elusive and lack a clear shape but can nevertheless be powerful and demanding when it comes to how we feel and experience a place (Sumartojo & Pink, 2019). In a similar vein, ambiguity about the status and character of buildings has previously been acknowledged as an advantage for residents to decide on what the building is (Kraftl, 2009), how architecture is practised (Jacobs & Merriman, 2011) and how design is produced (Böhme, 2018). Buildings are thus co-produced by residents, architects and engineers and the material world in socio-material processes.

We conclude this section by summating our theoretical argument. To answer the question of how something is present in the built environment (Böhme, 1998) calls for explorations of the politics and labour involved, how these presentations are perceived by subjects through their aesthetics, the atmospheres they create, and their ecstasies (Anderson, 2009). We continue to follow Böhme (1993) to investigate the aesthetics of everyday life, commodities, and the political aesthetics in how designs for environmental sustainability in Vallastaden are translated into residential passive houses.

3. Materials and methods: studying homes through atmospheres

This section first presents contextual information on the Swedish neighbourhood we have studied, tabular summaries regarding our choice of housing units covered and interviewees canvassed, and important design particulars regarding housing unit structure. We then present an analysis of interviewee response patterns with regard to three important sub-themes, namely problems with cold indoors during winters, heat indoors during summers, and with airing and coolness throughout the year.

Vallastaden was planned as a mixed-use new neighbourhood with 1000 homes being built during the first stage of the development. In the present paper, we only included the 237 housing units that were designed and planned for an A certificate and realised in 2017–2019 (see Table 1 for the selection of buildings). Most of these homes are co-operative housing where an intended buyer pays for a share of the co-operative with access to a specific flat. The price for a share in a co-operative in Vallastaden was in 2017–2019 around €3800 per square meter, similar to other newly constructed multi-family homes in Linköping. It was mandatory for all buildings to connect to the district heating system and install a heat recovery ventilation system.

Table 1. List of included buildings in our study. Some buildings (Inspirationen 3 &5 and Integrationen 6) have not been certified although it is mandatory in Sweden.

Property identity	Address	Type of housing	Number of housing units	Ownership	Energy performance certificate	Energy use per square meter
Illustrationen 6	Fredrik Hasselqvists gata 1	Multi-family building	26	Co-operative housing	C	73 kWh/sqm/year
Innovationen 7-10	Hugo Theorells gata 5, 7, 9, 11	Terraced houses	4	Owner-occupied	C	83 kWh/sqm/year
Insikten 3	Lärdomsgatan 8	Multi-family building	12	Municipal housing company rental flats	B	56 kWh/sqm/year
Inspirationen 3 & 5	Hugo Theorells gata 25 & 33	Multi family building	18	Co-operative	–	–
Inspirationen 6, 11, 12	Selma Lagerlöfs gata gata 4, 6, 8	Terraced houses	3	Owner-occupied	A	45 kWh/sqm/year
Integralen I-IV	Kunskapslänken 64-72	Multi-family building	45	Co-operative housing	C	66 kWh/sqm/year
Integralen I-IV	Kunskapslänken 74	Multi-family building	15	Co-operative housing	B	63 kWh/sqm/year
Integralen I-IV	Kunskapslänken 76-84	Multi-family building	45	Co-operative housing	C	67 kWh/sqm/year
Integrationen 6	Nanna Svarz gata 9	Multi-family building	14	Co-operative housing	–	–
Integrationen 9	Lärdomsgatan 1, Johannes Magnus väg 28 & 30	Multi-family building	25	Co-operative housing	C	66 kWh/sqm/year
Integrationen 10	Johannes Magnus väg 32 & 34	Multi-family building	30	Co-opertive housing	D	76 kWh/sqm/year

The question of how to study atmospheres has been addressed by scholars in fields as diverse as aesthetics (Griffero, 2014), anthropology (Bille, 2015a), design (Sumartojo & Pink, 2019) and philosophy (Böhme 2017b). We have drawn inspiration from the ethnologically grounded approach to research ‘through atmospheres’ (Sumartojo & Pink, 2019) in our case study neighbourhood Vallastaden. Thinking through atmospheres led us to explore and analyse the relations between the architecture, designs, materials and residents of this neighbourhood. To find interviewees, we worked with parallel strategies consisting of (number of recruited interviewees with the different strategies in brackets): a letter sent to all 216 residents living in passive houses (5); asking people in our network if they knew any passive house residents (4); attending an event in Vallastaden (2); posting a request for interviewees in the entrances of the passive houses (2); and sending emails to the three different housing cooperatives with passive houses (3). We were surprised how difficult it was to find interviewees, but since the neighbourhood was new, we thought residents were busy with making their new home. Also, Vallastaden comprises mostly cooperatives with residents responsible for setting up most of the tasks that had to do with management of buildings and the neighbourhood. All of this was new to many residents. For our study, we conducted 12 interviews with 16 different residents in their homes (Table 2), guided by an interview guide including questions about their homes, why they moved to Vallastaden, how they found their new homes in comparison with previous residences, and what they appreciated or not about their homes, with a specific focus on their experiences of thermal comfort.

Table 2. List of interviewees.

Pseudonym (interviewed together with)	Age (years)	Gender (F = female, M = male	Type of tenure	Size of home	Household type	Thermal comfort technologies
Adam (Agnes)	40s	M	Owner occupied	4 Bedrooms	Two adults, two teenagers	CH, DH, GH, MVHR
Agnes (Adam)	40s	F	Owner occupied	4 Bedrooms	Two adults, two teenagers	CH, DH, GH, MVHR
Agneta (Albert)	30s	F	Co-operative	2 Bedrooms	Two adults	CH, DH, MVHR
Albert (Agneta)	30s	M	Co-operative	2 Bedrooms	Two adults	CH, DH, MVHR
Alexander	30s	M	Co-operative	2 Bedrooms	Two adults	CH, DH, MVHR
Alvar	20s	M	Co-operatiev	Studio	Two adults	CH, DH, MVHR
Amalia	30s	F	Co-operative	1 Bedroom	One adult	CH, DH, MVHR
Anders (Anita)	30s	M	Co-operative	2 Bedrooms and loft	Two adults	CH, DH, MVHR, PAC
Anita (Anders)	30s	F	Co-operative	2 Bedrooms and a loft	Two adults	CH, DH, MVHR, PAC
Anna (Artur)	20s	F	Co-operative	1 Bedroom	Two adults	CH, DH, MVHR
Anneli	20s	F	Co-operative	Studio with loft	One adult	CH, DH, MVHR, EF
Arne	20s	M	Co-operative	Studio	Two adults	CH, DH, MVHR
Artur (Anna)	20s	M	Co-operative	1 Bedroom	Two adults	CH, DH, MVHR
Anton	30s	M	Co-operative	2 Bedrooms	One adult, one child	CH, DH, MVHR
August	30s	M	Co-operative	2 Bedrooms	Two adults	CH, DH, MVHR
Axel	30s	M	Co-operative	Studio with loft	One adult	CH, DH, MVHR, EF

Legend for thermal comfort technologies: central heating: CH; district heating: DH; ground heating: GH; mechanical ventilation heat recovery: MVHR; portable air conditioning: PAC; electric fans: EF.

Flats with lofts are not very common in Sweden, but a frequent feature in Vallastaden (see Figure 1 for an example of floor plans with lofts). Lofts generate more floor space for residents with little extra costs for developers, and since building heights were unlimited in this neighbourhood, but plots of land naturally limited, this was a cost-efficient construction. The unrestricted building heights encouraged developers to use timber framing and to take the option to work with higher buildings and more volume for each housing unit. When building heights are limited, timber framing has a disadvantage, since each housing unit needs more space between floors to accommodate the pipes and cables that make up the building’s energy, water and wastewater infrastructure. With higher ceilings than in regular flats and warm air rising, the homes with lofts could be expected to have more issues with thermal comfort.

Figure 1. Example of a floor plan with lofts in the Vallastaden neighbourhood. To the left: the ground floor with two studios and lofts (Swedish: entresol), and communal spaces for bicycles, wheelchairs and stroller storage, entrance, elevator and staircase. To the right: first floor with two lofts and vertical open space in the studios and communal spaces (Source: Linköping Municipality, 2015).

All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The main author of this paper read the transcriptions and colour highlighted different themes to code the text. The following themes were identified: the residents’ descriptions of the materials and technologies that influenced their thermal comfort; thermal comfort during summer, autumn, winter and spring; thermal comfort during everyday activities (cooking, resting, sleeping, socialising, washing up the dishes and washing clothes), and actions taken to achieve thermal comfort. To analyse the empirical material, we continued to be inspired by the new aesthetics and atmospheres to provide an understanding of thermal comfort that explicitly included architecture, design, the material and users. We analysed the interviews, guided by the new aesthetics, and looked for when residents talked about their relations between thermal comfort, architecture, design, the material and technologies. Some relations were more frequent: the residents’ relations to the passive house concept, the timber and wood designs, the spatiality created through high ceilings and lofts, and the extensive glazing in homes (see Figure 2 for an image of a Vallastaden residential building with timber frames and big windows). Our results’ section below is structured based on the relations we identified and residents’ thermal comfort experiences.

Figure 2. Vallastaden homes designed as passive houses with timber and south- and south-west-facing big windows (Source: Author’s own collection).

4. Results: the political aesthetics of passive houses in vallastaden

In this section, we start with overall observations of the interviewed residents’ situation. We then present a closer analysis of interviewee response patterns with regard to three important sub-themes, namely problems with cold indoors during winters, heat indoors during summers, and with airing and coolness throughout the year. One overarching empirical regularity we find is that housing design in itself is not sufficient to achieve what we call thermal comfort for the residents, and that fine-tuning the atmosphere of residents’ housing is in important respects left to residents themselves to resolve, in only partial consonance with original design intentions.

In the interviews, the residents’ notions of the energy designs varied. Residents Adam and Agnes mentioned the energy designs as one of the important aspects of their decision to buy a house in Vallastaden, while for example residents Anna and Artur were unaware of their house having a specific energy design.

Interviewer: Were you aware of moving into a passive house?

Resident Artur: What did you say?

Interviewer: A passive house.

Residents Anna and Artur: Haha, no! […]

Resident Anna: That’s weird….

Resident Artur: Well, that is really interesting, I have never heard the word, the property broker didn’t mention it, not the architect…

Resident Anna: But what does it mean?

(Residents Anna and Arthur)

Designs that are open to a variety of interpretations and uses, and encourage exploration and further development, may be better for users than those that are perceived as closed and static (Böhme, 2018; Jacobs & Merriman, 2011; Kraftl, 2009). Residents Adam and Agnes started to explore the design after moving in to their new Vallastaden home and found construction mistakes that made the house less energy-efficient than stated in the sales process. Some parts of the energy system had to be replaced, and other parts needed adjustments to fit their family thermal comfort needs. Adam and Agnes were among the few people in Vallastaden who formally owned their house, without being members of a cooperative. At one point in the sale process, their house was marketed as a passive house equipped with smart technologies, but when these houses were not sold initially, the developer chose to downplay the low-energy housing concept and changed the marketing to focus on other design qualities such as the Japanese-inspired mini-patio and garden. When the building performance certificates became available, they showed that the three houses similar to Agnes and Adam’s were the only ones in the whole of Vallastaden to reach level A (Boverket, 2023), which is close to the Swedish passive house standard.

The political aesthetics of the passive house designs were part of the environmental sustainability ambitions of Vallastaden, but mostly at the planning stage. Most of the built designs failed both in regard to energy certification and in involving the residents’ everyday life in the energy system, something which previous research has found to be necessary (Isaksson, 2009; Karresand, 2014).

Another environmental sustainability feature of some of the Vallastaden passive houses was timber framing and timber facades. Griffero (2014) suggested that objects made of wood have certain ecstasies that may be associated with living trees, and with their organic sensuality and role in human history as offering protection from the elements and useful materials. Wood has a ‘charm’ in its hidden potential for a variety of uses. Timber framing and wooden façade materials were promoted and quite frequently used in Vallastaden in both multifamily houses and single-family detached houses. Residents Agneta and Albert lived in one of the co-operative housing estates built with timber frames and façades. Their impression was that the wood made their house and home feel more alive:

Resident Albert: Guests coming to visit us say that it feels cosy and homely despite us moving in recently. I think that’s because we made an effort to furnish and decorate quickly, but I also believe it’s because it’s a timber house and it creates a bit of … soul – despite it being very, very new.

Resident Agneta: Yes, I think the nicest houses in the area are timber houses […] Timber makes the houses more alive.

The visual impression and interpretation of the ‘timber look’ may be linked to environmental sustainability and communicate a concern for the environment and nature. In contrast to the appealing visual look of wood as a ‘living material’, timber also created unexpected audial impressions in the form of loud bangs as the material continuously shrank and expanded depending on indoor and outdoor humidity (observation during home visit to resident Axel). Another feature of the timber frames was the presence of visual cracks in ceilings and walls, especially during the first few years as the built-in humidity in the timber gradually decreased and the wooden frame went through a process of shrinking. The ecstasies of timber in the buildings are for some residents an important aspect of their positive feelings about their homes. The feel of timber derives from visual impressions and is one of a perceived natural material. Just knowing that your house has a timber frame makes it special, and the timber cladding displays the environmental ethos of that specific house. Wooden houses will stand out from neighbouring houses with other façade materials and timber becomes aesthetic manipulation (Böhme, 1993).

Large windows were intentionally installed in Vallastaden to showcase social and environmental aspects of sustainability (Eidenskog et al., 2023). Architects designed the buildings to display social life, recycling practices and sustainable transport in the neighbourhood. Similar to passive house residents in Denmark (Brunsgaard, Knudstrup, et al., 2012) residents reported feeling exposed, especially in their private sphere at home, and that their privacy is not respected, especially for homes on the ground floor. Ground-floor resident Amalia reflected on the large windows in her flat:

The [design] thinking is to be really close… to live together and we have enormous windows, but people don’t want it like that. We are Swedes! We put up barriers, signs or simply just draw the curtains, there is a… almost a cult […] you want your own space. (Resident Amalia)

Böhme (2017b) writes about the aestheticisation of politics and how everyday life is put on stage through commodities designed to stage our lives. Artefacts and technologies are not primarily intended for necessities in life, but for entertainment and joy. Böhme (2018, p. 31) declares: ‘Aesthetics in the context of politics becomes problematic only when politics itself becomes a staging or pursues aestheticization in lieu of what really matters: the transformation of the human condition’. The compactness and high density of Vallastaden are felt more keenly on the ground level, especially since these homes have a direct connection to both stationary elements such as other buildings and passing objects and subjects.

The passive house concept includes designs that potentially hinder relations to the surroundings, since it is more difficult for the outdoor elements to reach into the indoor environment. Elements that would have a negative effect on energy efficiency are intentionally designed out: cold air, wind and, of course, rain and snow. However, through the same designs, sounds that might be considered pleasant such as birds singing or children playing are silenced by well-insulated walls, doors and windows (Isaksson, 2009).

4.1. Winter and cold

Seasonal changes of indoor thermal comfort are common in several parts of the world (Hitchings et al., 2015; Madsen 2018b; Pink et al., 2013). Residents in our study reported that their houses ‘followed the seasons’ (resident Albert), with noticeably cooler indoor temperatures in winter and sometimes dramatic shifts between different seasons; particularly the difference between summer and winter was like ‘day and night’ (resident Anneli).

The flat is vibrant and clearly follows the seasons, both regarding the light and it shifts a lot, which is fun… and nice. But to live here in winter… it is a totally different flat compared to the summer version. (Resident Albert)

When the temperature drops inside, Albert and his wife Agneta developed the practice to put on more clothes as their solution to unwelcome cool temperatures inside their flat. As Albert stated: ‘Well yes, we live in Sweden… so that is how it is’. August, who lived in a different building, was also used to cooler indoor temperatures from growing up in the countryside in a family that was conscious of the costs for heating their house.

I grew up living with, perhaps 17 degrees indoors in winter, so I’m used to that, while other people are used to 20–21 degrees. But I know my wife finds it hard during winter. (Resident August)

Different bodies experience the world differently (Ahmed, 2015; Brennan, 2004), but the indoor environment might also be designed to better host and care for some bodies rather than others. When the passive house concept was first introduced on the Swedish market, the co-presence of living bodies and the selection of quality construction materials for the building envelope were acknowledged as important (Isaksson, 2009), but eventually this focus was lost (Karresand, 2014; Niskanen, 2018).

The ecstasies of living bodies and the surfaces of walls, windows and doors all co-produce the atmospheres at home, and together provide qualities like thermal comfort and a homely atmosphere all year round (cf. Böhme, 1998). In passive houses, body heat is a tangible part of the heat balance, with each human body being a 100 W heat source (Isaksson, 2009; Karresand, 2014).

The ecstasies of human bodies mean that heat exchanges through the air and the buildings depend on bodies as heat sources, otherwise they would not be sufficiently heated. Heating through means such as radiators might not be sufficient in passive houses. With active, hot bodies inside, passive houses work better. Anton witnessed how having friends and family over for dinner made the temperature noticeable higher.

Other factors also co-produce thermal comfort. August’s top-floor flat has large windows with a small radiator just underneath them; he reflected that the radiator perhaps did not provide enough heat. This was confirmed by Anita and Anders, who lived in the same building complex but on the ground floor. As members of the board of the same housing co-operative, they received complaints from residents living higher up in the building. These complaints were filed regularly every year when the cold season started, and the layman board of the housing co-operative had not yet figured out why the heating system seemed to work better for residents on the ground and first floors, but not higher up in the building.

Amalia, who lived in the same building as Agneta and Albert, reflected on the cold coming from the generous window areas in her flat. The windows seemed to generate cold, and the radiators underneath the windows had to work hard to maintain a decent level of thermal comfort for Amalia. Despite living in a housing co-operative with shared responsibilities for everything concerning the building and the flats, Amalia saw it as her duty to solve issues with thermal comfort herself, since she defined her type of tenure as owning her flat. If she had been renting her flat, she would have called customer services and asked them to come and fix the problem. Anita and Anders’ neighbours seemed to behave as if such issues were shared responsibilities and members of the board ultimately responsible for adjusting thermal comfort. Amalia’s approach to technologies that were part of her home’s energy system was ‘trial and error’, since she refused to read instruction manuals for the ventilation and radiators.

I don’t read that! I press a button and see what happens, and then: OK, great, then I know! Hahaha! (Resident Amalia)

One of the features Amalia appreciated the most was the underfloor heating in the bathroom. The underfloor heating could be operated by a ‘smart method’ (c.f. Darby, 2018; Hargreaves et al., 2018) whereby the system learns at what times of day the resident prefers the heating to be on. It was designed for regular use, on the basis of recurring habits, e.g. on weekdays and weekends. Amalia, however, worked irregular hours at the hospital and was unable to adjust the ‘smart system’ for her individual needs. This was frustrating and confusing for her, as she never figured out how to operate the smart heating. Tenure played a part in residents’ different opportunities to create the desired atmospheres at home. Most of our interviewees were members of co-operatives and had to have decisions from the board for any alterations that had to do with the building envelope or heating system. Aesthetic practices were restricted by the boards, - still, the members of the board tried to suggest less intrusive solutions to thermal discomfort.

The relation between living bodies and passive houses is beyond the idea of the socio-material that is usually suggested to understand relationships between people, homes and housing (cf Blunt & Dowling, 2022; Easthope et al., 2020). Living bodies not only have an active part in producing homely atmospheres, cosiness and general comfort, but are specifically integrated parts of the low-energy and environmentally sustainable energy system of a building. Bodies in this case become political means for achieving goals related to energy efficiency and sustainability (Ahmed, 2007–2008; 2015; Brennan, 2004) and part of the atmospheric practices developed by residents.

4.2. Hot in summer

The overheating of low-energy houses is a well-documented issue (Brunsgaard, Knudstrup, et al., 2012; Foster et al., 2016; Lomas & Porritt, 2017; Sunikka-Blank et al., 2018) but has generally not been properly addressed (Madsen, 2018b). Sun rays played an ambiguous role in relation to the Vallastaden homes. While the light was usually appreciated by residents – who in this case live relatively close to the Arctic Circle, where long, dark days during winter can affect people’s moods – passive houses are particularly vulnerable to overheating in summer (Isaksson, 2009; Karresand, 2014). In the design and construction of passive houses in Sweden, a main concern has been how thermal comfort can be achieved in winter. Concerns about overheating in spring, summer and autumn have also been raised by researchers (Persson et al., 2006), but are usually not addressed by architects and developers. Generally, the passive house buildings in Vallastaden have not been designed to cater for excessive heat through windows, but instead extensive glazing has been installed as part of the glazing trend in building design (Steiner & Veel, 2011; Wall, 1996). Shading to prevent the sun from coming in through the large windows was not provided. Similar to the residents in the studies by Sunikka-Blank et al., (2018) and Madsen (2018b) residents struggled with finding appropriate solutions.

The heat in summer is close to what I can stand, and I know that some neighbours with more sun during the days have really hot flats. Some have animals, and I don’t think we should put up with this heat. The co-operative seems not to know what to do, residents complain, you can’t stay here in summer, some leave during summer, and there is no solution and that is really frustrating. (Resident Anita)

When the building designs failed to provide shading, the residents, through co-operative associations, suggested ad-hoc solutions such as air conditioning. Associations also organised meetings with the municipality, which was responsible for the master plan of the neighbourhood, and the developers responsible for the construction of the buildings, but ultimately, once residents had moved in and agreed to the terms and conditions of the buildings, the co-operatives were responsible. Residents in other houses and co-operatives had similar experiences.

Last summer it was really hot, with many temperature records, and it was really, really hot indoors. We couldn’t do much since we don’t have air conditioning. For several weeks, we had 30 degrees and things on our balcony melted. This summer, it was a similar situation, not as extreme but the consequences for us were the same. Our loft was even hotter when the hot air rose into that space. The glazing, and perhaps the timber, seems to make it exposed to the outdoor conditions since we instantly feel the heat. With the sun, the temperature rises immediately. With no sun, the heat disappears. (Agneta: Yes) The shift is instant […] and the greenhouse effect inside is really strong. (Residents Agneta and Albert)

These residents eventually decided to move to another flat in a different building, facing a different direction but still within the Vallastaden neighbourhood. When we investigated the number of residents who had moved out between 2020 and 2022, we found that around half of the residents had moved. One reason for so many people leaving the neighbourhood might be the relatively high number of small flats and the proximity to a university campus. Vallastaden is characterised by a large student population and students generally move more often than other residents. One of the non-students in our study, Axel, said he decided to move since the flat did not meet his expectations on thermal comfort:

It is extremely hot, and still… I love heat, I’m one of those guys who enjoys 50 degrees. Here in my flat, I just have to comply. Curtains would remove the much-needed daylight… and the only thing… awnings covering the windows from top to bottom, but well, the co-operative has to approve this measure, and the costs are high, 1500 euros for each window… 15 for that… and 15 for that… In summer, you need to remove the heat in some way, if not awnings, fans are an option, which I plan to use. Air conditioning is an option, but the house would lose its passive character, or at least this flat – and you still need the approval to install it. (Resident Axel)

Axel showed us two 200 cm ceiling fans he had bought for the flat, and talked about installing them in time for next summer. However, he hadn’t yet figured out how he was going to reach the high ceiling to secure the fans. He planned to leave them for the next resident. Another solution used by residents was solar control window films. Residents Anita and Anders lived in a ground floor flat:

Anita: It is one of the negative aspects of having a well-insulated house.

Anders: Very, very, well-insulated houses, which is good energy-wise, but difficult living-wise, sometimes. It gets incredibly hot… It is difficult to solve that problem now when the house is already built.

Anita: Window solar film helps a bit, but I can’t remove the sun, can I? (Residents Anita and Anders)

These residents were part of the management for a co-operative, and they received complaints about overheated flats from other residents and members of the co-operative. Since they were unable to provide a general solution for all the affected flats, they tried instead to spread the word about how they had used solar control window films in their own flat. Another, more radical measure this couple took was to make a window exchange. To enable cross-ventilation – and the original design did not include any openable windows in one end of their flat – a window close to the ceiling was exchanged for an openable window to create a movement of air along the length of the flat. The temperature of the air is not affected by this measure, but moving air feels cooler – a similar effect to what Axel was aiming for with his ceiling fans. Anita and Anders also bought a portable air conditioner to use when the solar films and cross-ventilation were insufficient. Resident Alexander, who lived in a different building, on the top floor and very exposed to the weather conditions, said he was ‘very, very, very, very close to buying an air conditioner’, but thought high-quality machines were too expensive. The conditions for using cross-ventilation were quite good:

We have a balcony door in a northern direction with lots of wind, almost always when we open that door, the breeze goes through the flat. During the day we are able to get some fresh air and we close the doors and windows in the morning and night to keep the hot air out. Those are our ways of managing the situation. (Resident Alexander).

Resident Arne used a strategy he adopted when he lived in Graz, Austria, and his student dormitory room was too hot to sleep in during summer: a wet towel to sleep under. This practice was however not appreciated by his partner, who refused to share the wet blanket. In Vallastaden passive houses, the aesthetics of the commodities of ceiling fans, a wet towel and portable air conditioners were used to fine-tune the atmospheres in attempts to make them more comfortable in summer.

4.3. Airy and cool

Some of the homes we visited in this case study were designed with high ceilings and lofts. These designs were presented by the architects as smart and efficient, but still inviting the elements and daylight in through large windows, balconies and communal wintergardens on the rooftops. Lofts were built to be used as bedrooms in studio apartments or as separate entertainment rooms accessible via a staircase or ladder. For the developer, lofts would generate more living floor space in an otherwise rather small studio and the impression of high ceilings would create an airy and spacious feel. Wade et al., (2017, 2018) reported how different professional groups, such as architects and heat installers, did not coordinate their designs, resulting in technologies failing in providing energy efficiency. The residents in our study did appreciate the look and feel of the high ceilings and lofts, but these positive visual impressions did not translate into everyday comfort. Resident Anneli lived in a studio where the loft was more or less the only space suitable for her bed.

In the loft, where I sleep, it gets really hot… I try to open the windows and ventilate as much as I can before the heat starts during the day, and I use blackout curtains and a portable fan…. Hmmm, yes, you really need that, I have two fans that I use daily during summer. (Resident Anneli)

For the general circulation of fresh air, these newly built residential buildings are equipped with heat recovery ventilation systems. Through these systems, pre-heated air enters the individual flats and contributes to thermal comfort during the cold season, often from September to May. However, no central systems are installed to cater for thermal comfort during the warm season, and residents are left to solve the problem of high temperatures themselves. Sometimes the needs of the residents come into conflict with regulations such as fire safety measures.

The ventilation for fresh air doesn’t provide cooling. For cooling I need to open a window, but the developer removed the handle on the only openable window because of fire safety measures… they removed all handles on the windows facing this direction… I was so hot and desperately needed to open that window. (Resident Amalia)

The case of Amalia demonstrates a failure in planning for sustainable relations between the residents and their housing units, their building, and the various surrounding buildings and environments. Fire regulations outweigh the residents’ needs for thermal comfort throughout the seasons, regardless of hot or cold conditions. Several residents referred to technologies that affected their daily life at home but were beyond their control.

I wish I knew more about (the ventilation systems) because sometimes, well the smell (from other residents cooking meals) is often inconvenient and it sounds like a huge engine… or something, a ‘swoosh’ and you go: WHAT!?. This happens once a day, so not that often, but still not that fun. Once it happened when I was about to go to bed, and at night the noise is more prominent. (Resident Axel)

Air, cooling and ventilation in the Vallastaden passive houses are disconnected systems, and residents sometimes experienced them separately, but often the boundaries between them were blurred. The ventilation systems were designed to remove ‘pollution’ from the air, but the residents’ impression of the system was that it added oxygen to the indoor space. The system could be ‘set to one or two people oxygen-wise’ (resident Amalia) and the fan and circulation could be used to adjust the oxygen level, according to some residents.

The volume and vertical space created by designing small apartments with high ceilings and lofts have a political aesthetics that became part of everyday life for the residents in Vallastaden. The initial impressions of an open and spacious apartment, filled with daylight and marketed with references to big-city lifestyles, for some gave way to a constant battle with overheating and the invention of different atmospheric practices to cool the air. In sum, we find that to a considerable degree, residents are left to themselves in solving the different kinds of problems they may experience with cold temperatures indoors during winters, hot temperatures indoors during summers, and with airing and coolness throughout the year. We also find that the solutions chosen sometimes complement, but can even contradict, the designers’ intentions with energy-efficient housing construction. In the ensuing final section, we summate this argument with respect to both theory and the data used.

5. Conclusion: residents and planners at odds in energy-efficient housing

Studies of low-energy housing in several parts of the world have showed residents struggling to achieve and control thermal comfort (Lomas & Porritt, 2017; Madsen, 2018b; Sunikka-Blank et al., 2018) and the presence of an energy performance gap in contemporary housing (Brom et al., 2018; Gram-Hanssen & Georg, 2018; Sunikka-Blank & Galvin, 2012). This paper contributes to previous research with examples from Vallastaden, Sweden, where residents in new homes designed as passive houses experience issues with both overheating and cold. These experiences are shaped by residents’ relations to the building energy system including architecture, design, the material and technologies and contribute to residents’ development of practices to manage thermal comfort. We proposed the concepts of ‘the new aesthetics’(Böhme, 1993, 1998) and ‘atmospheric practices’ (Bille & Simonsen, 2021) to analyse thermal comfort in the everyday lives of residents in Vallastaden passive houses. This conceptual approach is a response to calls for including sensory aspects of thermal comfort practices and designs (Madsen & Gram-Hanssen, 2017; Pink et al., 2013; Royston, 2014).

Seasonal changes have previously been acknowledged in social science studies of thermal comfort (Hitchings et al, 2015; Madsen, 2018b; Royston, 2014), and are an inherent aspect of living in Sweden. The interviewees in our study noticed the seasonality in their homes. Their houses became hot in summer and cold in winter, phenomena which the interviewees related to extensive glazing, small radiators and lack of shading. A variety of practices to increase thermal comfort were developed by the residents. Several were non-energy intensive (such as creating cross-breeze and sleeping under a wet towel in summer), but some practices increased the use of electricity in these low-energy homes (electrical ceiling fans and portable air-conditioning units). In the same vein as previous research, our results showed how bodies and senses are integrated into thermal comfort practices (Madsen & Gram-Hanssen, 2017; Royston, 2014). Different bodies sense temperatures and other aspects of thermal comfort in different ways depending on gender, age and culture (Hansen et al., 2019; Hagejärd et al., 2021). The atmospheric practices employed by residents in the current study show how previous experiences of cooler indoor temperatures make residents more resilient to cold flats, or make them develope strategies to care for their individual bodily thermal comfort. Theoretical concepts for analysing sensory experiences by residents are necessary to capture these aspects of thermal comfort. The new aesthetics and atmospheres offer such concepts.

Of the housing units designed as passive houses, only three units were awarded the energy performance certificate A, - the rest only reached B or C certificates (Boverket, 2023). Some buildings have not yet been certified at all, even though it is mandatory in Sweden. The standardised technical protocols to conduct and evaluate the energy performance of housing are important to be able to assess and compare buildings, but the residents’ experiences of thermal comfort should also be included. In our paper, we have illuminated how the relations between the designs, materials, technologies and bodies shape thermal comfort and we conclude that these relations are important to acknowledge. In line with previous research, we showed the presence of the many different variations in residents’ strategies to manage their thermal comfort, and also show how individuals and cooperatives are left to find solutions to thermal comfort issues on their own. Low-energy housing is necessary to reach our energy-efficiency targets and sustainability goals, but with the resources invested in these buildings, more effort is required to construct these homes to meet the standard set in the design phase and make sure residents enjoy thermal comfort. Residents’ ad hoc strategies might increase the use of electricity and force them to make own investments and work in an array of different technologies to reach the thermal comfort they desire. These results could be expected to be valid to low-energy housing in other locations, with similar building categories and a similar climate as in this case study from Sweden.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all interviewees for their time and welcoming us in their homes. We also wish to thank the Swedish Energy Agency for funding this research through project no 46229-1.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swedish Energy Agency.

Notes on contributors

Wiktoria Glad

Wiktoria Glad is an associate professor at the Department of Thematic Studies – Technology and Social Change at Linköping University. She is a human geographer with research interests in critical geographies of architecture, design and home. Recent work has explored energy system designs, energy renovations, household waste recycling, passive house designs and neighbourhood sustainability.

Madelene Gramfält

Madelene Gramfält is a PhD student at the Department of Thematic Studies – Technology and Social Change at Linköping University. She is based in environmental science and is writing her dissertation about sustainable housing, passive house designs and urban planning in Sweden.

Malin Nilsson

Malin Nilsson is a Master of Arts in Strategic Urban and Regional Planning and Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Science at Linköpings University focusing on sustainability, climate change issues, circular economy and sustainable transformation in urban planning.