Research Design Connection Indoor Climates, Long Ago Homes
Just, Nichols and Dunn evaluated indoor climates across the United States. They studied “indoor climate data from homes…across the USA. We then compared these data to recent global terrestrial climate data (0.5° grid cells, n = 67 420) using a climate dissimilarity index…On average, our study homes were most similar in climate to the outdoor conditions of west central Kenya…Overall, we identified the geographical distribution of the global outdoor climate that is most similar to the interiors of our study homes and summarized study home indoor climate preferences…the temperature people prefer overlaps with much of the geographical area in which key events in hominid evolution and, for that matter, early civilization occurred…We hypothesize that natural selection favoured human preferences and thermal traits that allowed human ancestors to live in those climates.” Insights drawn from this work by Just and colleagues can inform future design decisions that influence the “climates” experienced by space …
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