On Cooling and Comfort: The Engineering of Thermal Spaces in Bahrain

Marwa Koheji

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

As global temperatures reach record highs, the use of air conditioning is becoming increasingly popular worldwide. In Bahrain, air-conditioning accounts for approximately 60–65 percent of electricity consumption in buildings. This article argues that the proliferation of air-conditioning in Bahrain is not simply related to its hot climate. It is also driven by engineering standards and practices related to thermal comfort. The article tracks the evolution of comfort standards from their creation in the U.S. in the 1920s, through their enrollment in British modernization policies in Bahrain, to the rise of adaptive comfort research from the 1970s to the early 2000s. By tracing these periods, it examines the role of comfort standards in establishing air-conditioning as a necessity in Bahrain. Drawing on interviews with engineers in contemporary Bahrain, the article further investigates how comfort standards are integrated into actual engineering practices. It demonstrates that engineers often adjust, and at times ignore, standards to deliver overcooled and uncomfortable thermal conditions. By combining historical and ethnographic inquiries, this article contributes timely insights into how comfort standards circulate and how they can produce conditions of discomfort in new places. In so doing, it also challenges the assumption that comfort standards generate homogenous thermal environments everywhere they are adopted. The broader conclusion is that contextual studies of comfort standards can open new avenues for intervention toward more sustainable thermal futures.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)30-50
Number of pages21
JournalEngineering Studies
Volume17
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2025

Keywords

  • Air-conditioning
  • Bahrain
  • comfort standards
  • engineering
  • The Gulf
  • thermal studies

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • General Engineering
  • History and Philosophy of Science

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