Feeling the Heat: Uncomfortable Design Fictions for Alternative Forms of Summer Comfort

Ironically, global warming is leading to increased demand for artificial space cooling, which in turn fuels greenhouse gas emissions. In this pictorial, we present a set of deliberately uncomfortable design fictions aimed at disrupting this harmful cycle and opening new design spaces for alternative forms of summer comfort. Through the fictions, we argue how designers’ assumptions about comfort play a role in steering responses to global warming in narrow, resource-intensive and exclusionary directions. In our discussion, we increase the heat by reflecting on the role of assumed users in fueling resource intensive lifestyles, and challenge designers to consider users that are affluent but nonetheless willing and able to invest effort and change their expectations in the face of current global crises. We close with a visual provocation that links designing low effort technological solutions to the breeding practices of the cuckoo.


INTRODUCTION
Climate change is increasingly moving from a scientific prediction to a lived reality [10].Ironically, global warming is fueling demand for artificial space cooling (dominantly provided through air-conditioning) [28], which in turn is an important contributor to greenhouse gas emissions [51].Responses to break this cycle are mainly directed at making cooling technologies more energy efficient, and reducing the other greenhouse gasses they emit [3,9,44,59].However, the link between global warming and the growing need for artificial space cooling itself is rarely questioned.
While space cooling is a necessity in extreme conditions and for vulnerable groups, it is a luxury in many other circumstances, particularly in relatively moderate climates like Northern Europe.Moreover, once cooling is adopted, infrastructures and practices tend to reshape around it, leading to dependence on cooling [20,45,68].Dependence on cooling reduces the adaptive capacity of households and societies, which affects underpriviledged groups the most [64,65].
To minimize societal dependence on cooling, we focused on questioning and disrupting the assumed need for cooling in affluent, non-vulnerable households in the Netherlands.

SUMMER COMFORT
The Netherlands is one of the Northern European countries in which artificial space cooling (cooling in short) is traditionally not common in dwellings, but currently spreading rapidly.
According to a study by Rovers et al. [57], approximately 1-in-5 Dutch households had cooling in 2021.In 2023, penetration rates had risen to 30% [47].While cooling is in some cases necessary, particularly for vulnerable people to whom high indoor temperatures can be life-threatening [30], it is a luxury for most.This is particularly ironic given that climate change is largely caused by affluent societies such as the Netherlands [69], while climate conditions are far milder than in many less affluent regions.
Also within the Netherlands, the turn to cooling as an easy solution to overheating by affluent households hampers the development of more accessible, less resource intensive forms of dealing with hot weather.Developing these strategies requires the reconfiguration of social practices, involving changes in shared embodied norms and societal rhythms, and learning new skills.This is not an easy process.Physiological and behavioural adaptation to heat for example can contribute to wellbeing in warmer weather [12].However, while sweating is a highly effective bodily response to heat, it has a negative cultural connotation in the Dutch context [34,37].Moreover, the historically shaped Dutch tendency to welcome sunlight and warmer weather into the home, conflicts with practices of shading and night ventilation, which can be highly effective in preventing or reducing overheating [26,46,53].
Ironically, the presence of cooling further hampers the development of these strategies.Embodied adjustment to heat, adapting daily rythms, or putting effort in shading and ventilating is not necessary when heat is automatically 'taken care of' by a cooling system.This is detrimental for the environment and those who cannot afford cooling, but dependence on cooling also has downsides for affluent users, for example by limiting their capacity to go outside in times of warmer weather.So why are Dutch households so eagerly turning to cooling?We argue that an important cause of this development lies in the narrow 'technovisions' [14] promoted by the Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) sector.

THE TECHNO-HEDONIST PERSONA
According to Dahlgren et al. [13], industry visions in the smart home and energy sector -within which HVAC is an important player -tend to dominantly serve what they refer to as the 'techno-hedonist persona' [13].This persona prefers customized, pleasurable aesthetic experiences requiring low effort.
The techno-hedonist features dominantly in the HVAC sector in the form of a narrowly defined comfort zone achieved through automated systems that regulate indoor temperatures to stay within an 18-22°C range year-round [7].The 'need' for cooling is not questioned, in large part because the assumption is that low-effort, businessas-usual is what users want.
The vision of easy comfort provided at the push of a button, is promoted as the best and preferred way of dealing with heat through the narratives and visuals produced by the sector and used more widely.For example, As argued previously, these dominant, narrow visions do not serve the longer-term interests of end-users, inclusive societies, and natural ecosystems.To break away from this narrative, alternative future visions are needed.Aiming to 'democratize the future' [66], we therefore choose to focus on affluent users and explore what it would mean to flip around the techno-hedonist persona.This move directed us towards a particular set of approaches that are introduced next.
the top image promotes the benefits of airconditioning, showing people in regular clothing with an absence of shading despite the implied hot weather, while the image below problematizes lower-impact options such as adjusted clothing, fans, and a slowdown of activity.

PRACTICES-ORIENTED DESIGN
Practice theory has been identified as a viable theoretic framework to inform the development of design fiction [49,67].Practices-oriented design takes practices instead of technologies, behaviours, or interactions as its unit of analysis and design [40] and draws on social practice theories [58,61,63].Shove et al. [63] describe practices as coherent configurations of elements grouped as materials, competencies, and meanings.Combined with the concept of social change as a reconfiguration of elements, both familiar and unfamiliar, these tools support a form of designing in which skills and meanings are included in the unit of design alongside technologies [39].

UNCOMFORTABLE DESIGN FICTIONS
The aim of the exploration -forming part of a multiyear project on the future of summer comfort in Dutch households -was to question and disrupt dominant visions around dealing with hot weather in the Netherlands, and to open alternative design spaces for the industry and societal stakeholders involved.
We approached this by creating a set of narratives, visuals and artefacts that challenge dominant ideals around comfort.Given the embodied character of comfort, we combined a set of methods to achieve these aims: critical design fictions, practices-oriented design, and improvisational role play.This combination of methods worked towards creating a set of uncomfortable design fictions.Uncomfortable because they contrast with dominant ideas about what is comfortable.But also because they confront stakeholders involved in tackling issues around overheating in homes with uncomfortable reflections on how affluent, Western consumers and the designers catering for their needs are (not) dealing with their role in causing climate change.

IMPROVISATIONAL ROLEPLAY
This aspect of our approach builds on a wider tradition in HCI and TEI to use embodied performance to gain insights [17,18,19,54,63].Designing with the body brings a distinct type of knowledge into the design process that is related to embodied skills, knowledges, and experiences.
Including improvisation makes these aspects emerge in the situated interaction.Linked to theories of practice, the focus is shifted from centralizing a (novel) technology, towards the development of scenarios in which different ideas of normality and different sets of knowledge and skills have become normal among 'future' people [36,39].

METHODS
The set of methods was implemented in three contexts during the spring of 2021: (1) an interaction design bachelor course involving 25 students, (2) an interaction design master course involving nine students, and (3) a stakeholder workshop on futures of summer comfort involving project partners from the HVAC sector.
Each design context used a brief that directed towards the generation of alternative practices that move away from the assumed future of 'business as usual' facilitated by artificial cooling.
Central to the brief was a persona opposite to the techno-hedonist: someone willing and able to learn new skills and change their expectations of comfort in the face of the climate crisis.From the 16 resulting concepts [35], three were selected by the project's stakeholders to represent the overall set as flagship exemplars.Over a period of two months, they were developed into higher-fidelity design fictions (including prototypes, visuals and narratives) that were presented in various media and exhibitions.
In the following section, these three design fictions -one of which is a set of two -are presented along with a brief motivation behind their design and a reflection on how the fiction challenges the techno-hedonist persona and opens alternative futures of summer comfort.

CRITICAL DESIGN FICTION
Critical design [16] or Alternative Design [52] forms a set of design approaches that question the status quo through and within design.By developing proposals and artefacts that break the rules of conventional product design, critical design aims to stimulate debate and reflection, thus developing more nuanced visions of possible futures, and exploring the boundaries of what is acceptable.Within critical design, design fiction [5] has emerged as a particular approach that explicitly engages with future everyday life through 'world building' [11].Design fictions allow the exploration of futures with changed socio-political context [6], which can take a variety of forms (including narratives, films, scenarios, etc.).While 'diegetic prototypes' [31] are used to materialize possible futures, design fictions can broaden design's focus beyond 'the making and production of artefacts and systems' [67].The materials and narratives created in this project serve as 'scaffolds' [27] to enable embodied reflection on dominant comfort, and design practices.
Social change as a reconfiguration of elements [32] Meanings Competencies

Materials
Concept, prototype and photos by: Tjeu van Bussel, Nina Boelsums and Piet de Koning.
Drawing by Shams Hazim.
This concept, created within the master course, departed from the observation that particularly in cities, the use of air-conditioning exacerbates the heat island effect, making the situation worse for those not able to afford cooling.Inspired by the tendency of Dutch people to go outside to enjoy warm weather, and the fact that appliances and people generate heat indoors, this project focused on living outdoors.To gain insights, they consulted professionals working with the unhoused and joined a public tour of Eindhoven offered by experience experts of dwelling in public space.
The concept was made into a working prototype, complete with instructions of use.With this prototype, the students then performed urbicamping for one day, taking on the roles of two experienced urbicampers and a journalist following them around.This resulted in a fictive magazine article about urbicamping as a future practice, which became part of the design fiction.

WHAT IF THE CITY KEPT YOU COOL?
URBICAMP is a high-end kit that enables setting up workspaces outdoors.It is set in a future where affluent young urban workers reprogrammed the public space as a living space during hot weather.
In this future, cities provide ample, shaded green space.Here, they enjoy working on their laptops in a gentle breeze, while in the meantime, their apartments are closed and shaded, and remain optimally cool for a night's rest without the added heat of their bodies and appliances.
The set includes magnetic hooks to apply to metal street furniture, a tarpaulin for blocking out the sun, bungee cords, a power strip, a small seat, and a bag that can be repurposed as a mat.
"... we move to another spot, which provides cover and electricity but also smells musty..." UrbiCamp challenges the techno-hedonist persona in various ways.Working on the street doesn't exactly adhere to dominant ideas of comfortable or even acceptable work environments for this target group.Moreover, by performing the fictive practice, the students experienced how, because individuals do not have full control over public space, dwelling in it requires improvisation with given circumstances as well as interactions and negotiations with others.
This challenges the focus of the techno-hedonist on his optimized, personalized home environment, but at the same time highlights potential benefits in the form of a cooler home for rest, and more social interaction during work time.
It also challenges norms of what public space is for and what 'dwelling' in it means and requires.Through designing the concept and trying it out in Eindhoven, the students experienced how much of public (green) space is designed for passers-by and not for dwelling.From the perspective of the urbicamper, current urban space can come across as hostile and desert-like.In this space, elements such as water taps, trees, CCTV camera's, parking spaces, nooks, benches, trash, power supplies, and wifi take on a different meaning.
For example, parking spaces, while comprising a major part of public space, turn out to 'prefer' cars over people.
A future in which outdoor public space becomes more of a summer time workspace for students and affluent office workers could improve its facilities to collectively achieve summer comfort, as well as provide new opportunities for connections (and conflicts) between different social groups.
Living Shirt emerged within the industrial design bachelor course module.It formed part of a set of ideas centered on plants in the home.Plants have been promoted for their positive effect on healthy indoor climates, with Aloe Vera, Golden Pothos and Areca Palm cited as species that help keep the house cool [48].Eventually the group focused on epiphyte clothing in which air-plants (plants that don't require soil) absorb sweat.
The idea of a shirt with air plants was then taken up within the stakeholder project and developed further into the design fiction of Living Shirt.Inspired by the students' work, the fiction contains a sketched use-scenario (next page) and a physical prototype.This prototype was developed together with a professional fashion designer and contained several iterations, in which we looked for example for fabrics that clearly show sweat spots.

WHAT IF SWEATING WAS SOMETHING GOOD?
LIVING SHIRT is a fictive garment containing Like UrbiCamp, Living Shirt challenges the technohedonist persona in several ways.It is a garment that provides comfort in hot weather, but at a different standard than cooled spaces, and not without effort.
Using Living Shirt requires considerable amounts of skill, care and attention.For Living Shirt to work, users need to learn about and cater for the needs of their non-human companions.
Beside interfering in practices of clothing care and storage, the concept implies a change in norms of (professional) dressing.Dressing, in particularly formal dress, is a practice containing many implicit rules on what is and is not acceptable to wear, but has a large impact on energy required for cooling (and heating) indoor spaces.
Finally and importantly, Living Shirt shifts embodied perceptions of sweat, from something undesirable to something that is welcomed.This shift in turn stimulates cycling or walking as forms of transportation in hot weather, and less frequent showering.As such, the concept also interferes in practices of personal cleanliness, which contain many implicit but strict rules around social acceptability.For example, as highlighted by the students, normalizing Living Shirt would make antiperspirants obsolete and even ridiculous as a concept.
A relatively simple concept that challenges a deeply embodied set of social norms around sweating, along with changed assumptions around users' willingness to invest effort is shown in this design fiction to have a wide range of secondary implications.This also highlights that current norms around sweating have further reaching consequences than increasing demand for cooling alone.Concept, drawings and prototype by: Saskia van Hoeven, Sanne Metten and Shams Hazim.
Cooling Patch and Chilly Popper present alternatives for the dominant space cooling scenario.Cooling Patch focuses on the body instead of the space, providing a steppingstone for the argument that bodies can actually already adjust to heat, without any technology.Chilly Popper highlights the 'always on' character of space cooling.Making cooling temporary and a deliberate choice changes its role in everyday life from passive to active.
But Cooling Patch and Chilly Popper also challenge the techno-hedonist persona differently.In a way, Cooling Patch is an ultimate techno-fix to 'solve' hot weather with a 'patch'.One exhibition visitor with a technical background walked away in anger when explained that the concept was fictive and not intended to be developed into a product.It could be argued that Cooling Patch 'mocks' the techno-hedonist by taking easy comfort to an extreme, and then killing it.Whether this invasive techno-fix is a desirable solution is clearly up for debate.The set of concepts places footnotes on the price of the fix.In the form of the Patch's side effects, and the fact that it is provided by government, but also in the form of Chilly Popper, which poses a less intrusive but expensive alternative.
As such, the set of concepts illustrates issues of access and dependence and enables reflections on complex relations between high-end fixes and cheaper alternatives.Technologies' existence creates a choice for those who can afford it but closes pathways for those who can't.Will research be done to fix the side effects of Cooling Patch when Chilly Popper exists?Will efforts be made to make Chilly Popper cheaper when Cooling Patch exists?

DISCUSSION
In this pictorial, we present a selection of uncomfortable design fictions aimed at disrupting the link between global warming and a need for artificial space cooling.
Here, we reflect on these aims, and elaborate how they render further insights for interaction design.After positioning the ways in which the design fictions challenge the techno-hedonist persona within related work, we elaborate how they harbour design opportunities that make space for alternative, less-resource intensive forms of summer comfort.We then broaden our reflections to the role that our 'flipped' persona could play in reframing challenges around climate change and inclusivity.We close with a visual provocation that links technovisions centralizing automated, easy pleasance to the reproductive practices of the cuckoo.

Unbalancing the techno-hedonist
As argued in the introduction, the techno-hedonist persona enforces the link between global warming and artificial space cooling by problematizing heat in a way that only artificial space cooling can 'solve'.The design fictions disrupt this balance.As illutrated, they do so by questioning the problem -'is sweating, dressing light, or slowing down really that bad?' -and by further problematizing the solution, i.e., techno-fixes create inequality and power issues.
But the design fictions also open alternative design spaces.As Wakkary et al. [67] argue, within design, 'corpuses of exemplars' can form 'actualized potentials that present opportunities and limits for design' (p23:2).Due to the set of selected methods, these potential alternative avenues -making use of outdoor shaded space, accepting sweat as something positive, adapting ways of dressing -are further explored.The design fictions thereby allow for an exploration beyond the lives of individual users towards 'sociological and cultural considerations' [15].Within these explorations, Living Shirt and UrbiCamp distinguish themselves from other critical design fictions by further decentralizing technological change.Rather than viewing innovations in norms, expectations and skills as consequences of or prerequisites for technological innovations such as internet of things [41], blockchain [54], drone deliveries [25], emotion detection [2], or smart personal assistants [61], the practicesoriented approach supports the fictions to remain low-tech and centralizes innovations in skills and meanings.The improvisational roleplay helped to flesh out these worlds in which novel skills have developed and expectations of what is normal have shifted.This for example highlighted the irony of repressing sweat, while sweating is a natural and freely available 'technology' to keep bodies cool.
As such, our approach supplements related approaches within HCI that challenge the modern idea that 'more' is probably 'better' [23].While approaches that study existing examples of alternatives such as 'simple living families' [23], practices of DIY and repair [43], self-sufficient farming communities [4], and minimalists and tiny house enthusiasts [8] can go more in depth on alternative lifestyles than design fictions, they are dependent on practices that already exist.Studies experimenting with alternative practices such as living without a smartphone [1,42] or trying alternative modes of transport [24], on the other hand, can create alternative personal experiences, but are limited by existing socio-cultural norms and structures.Design fictions and improvisational roleplay can aid in critically exploring such alternative socio-political structures.

Making space for alternatives
While the design fictions backgrounded (interactive) technologies, they have been effective in diversifying and stretching the design space for interface designs in the HVAC sector.We are for example currently exploring interface designs that assume a wider comfort zone of base cooling (above 27°C) and heating (up to 17°C) within which people are expected and invited to make themselves comfortable in other ways, such as adjusting their schedules, clothing, activity level or use of space.In other words, bodies are catered to 'feel the heat' and therefore enabled to adjust to it.
Our design also offers recommendations for performing shading and ventilation.By assuming people are willing to invest effort, the design is supporting users to learn new skills in dealing with heat.In other words, such a form of co-performance [33,38] -in which human creativity, effort and flexibility is included as part of the 'smart system' could invite this persona to develop.

Getting real
Centralizing an alternative persona in a design fiction is one thing, actually proposing designs for them is something else.We have repeatedly experienced how the idea of this persona -willing and able to invest effort, learn new skills and change their expectations of comfort in the face of global warming -creates discomfort among designers.Designing for this type of user is uncomfortable because it is likely to Photos (c) Shutterstock evoke responses from supervisors, colleagues, users and industry partners that this is not what people want or are likely to do.Although both are stereotypes, the technohedonist type persona is more familiar and receptive to the types of smart and interactive systems and devices we design.
However, voices arguing for the importance of radically different visions of consumption and 'the good life' are growing in number and force.As early as the 1970s, Illich [29] was warning against the risks of high tech and automation in increasing the resource intensity of everyday life, promoting a convivial lifestyle instead.More recently, concepts like alternative hedonism [62], voluntary sumplicity [55], and slow consumption [50] are gaining ground as necessary avenues to avert our current pathways towards planetary destruction.The opposite persona central to our design fictions embodies these alternative lifestyles.
As argued in the introduction, high tech solutions like artificial cooling are not just negatively affecting the environment, they are also exacerbating inequality.Designing for our alternative persona enhances societal resilience, particularly when targeting affluent households for whom easy, resource intensive lifestyles are currently the main option on offer.In line with the fact that affluent households are the the highest contributors to climate change, we argue that for achieving a more inclusive society, it is important to target precisely this group.
Finally, these alternative visions of 'the good life' are interesting in the context of this paper not just because of their concern for the planet and inclusive society, but also because they argue how more frugal, slower and less materialistic lifestyles contribute to wellbeing.This raises the question whether designing for technohedonism is really in any user's interest.

Cuckoo technologies
To close, we present a visual provocation that links the effects of designing for users that resemble the technohedonist persona to the breeding behaviours of the cuckoo.
As Cooling Patch and Chilly Popper also illustrate, the existence of certain 'solutions' hinders the development of others.Once installed, a well working cooling system will automatically eliminate heat from the dwelling.It thereby pushes out any further need for residents to deal with heat.The cost of this elimination of alternatives is high: monetary, environmental, but also a growing dependence on technologies, effectively placing more power over everyday life in the hands of the HVAC industry.This behaviour of artificial space cooling reminded us of the breeding behaviour of the cuckoo.The cuckoo chick pushes out the reed warbler's egg before it has a chance to hatch.The cuckoo technology pushes out less resource intensive alternatives before they get a chance to develop in society.
A cuckoo lays its egg in the nest of the reed warbler.The cuckoo chick hatches earlier than the reed warbler's own eggs.Once hatched, the chick pushes out the other eggs and the warbler 'parents' raise the chick as their own.Cuckoo technologies relate to the techno-hedonist persona because they push out alternatives by providing technological 'solutions' that demand as little effort and adjustment from end-users as possible.
As researchers, designers and teachers we have a possibility to shift the role of these technologies by questioning and shifting the assumptions and ideologies behind them.If designers keep assuming that people want easy solutions that require as little learning, effort and time as possible, everyday life will become increasingly resource intensive and inequality will continue to grow.
Are you (comfortable acting) like the cuckoo?

CONCLUSIONS
In this pictorial we present three While acknowledging that designing for our alternative persona might feel uncomfortable for interaction designers, we argue that doing so could play an important role in the development of less resource intensive, more inclusive and healthy societies.Our visual metaphor of cuckoo technologies playfully emphasizes this point.
The reed warbler rears the cuckoo's chick even though it is clearly not in their own interest.The user invests in the cuckoo technology but could have developed their own capacities instead.
air plants.While the plants live on nutrients and water from the wearer's sweat, they provide cooling through shelter and evaporation.It is set within a future in which norms of professional dressing have changed radically with the changing climate.Living Shirts invite commuting to work by bicycle or on foot in hot weather.Unlike today's clothing, Living Shirts join their owners for their weekly shower and hang in the window to catch sunlight when not worn.
SPACE, EASY, TECHNOLOGICAL > BODY, EFFORT, ECOLOGICAL Living shirt invites commuting to work by bicycle; it joins the owner for their weekly shower; Video of the Living Shirt concept for national exhibition (NWO domein-TTW) the plants live on nutrients from the wearer's sweat and hangs in the window to catch sunlight Concept, drawings and prototype by ANONIMIZED, ANONIMIZED and ANONIMIZED.Cooling Patch and Chilly Popper (next page) were developed as a complementary set of fictions.Both are set in a future scenario of continuous heat waves and a scarcity of energy.The Cooling Patch was inspired by trends of altering natural processes of the body, as well as the trend of micro-needling in the field of drug and vaccine delivery [21].Inspired by animals who are accustomed to extreme weather conditions such as the Pompeii worm and the Sahara desert ant [70], new ways of cooling are imagined to emerge such as creating more skin surface for better respiration and cooling [22].The Chilly Popper was inspired by trends of adaptations of the living environment and artificial space cooling, as well as issues of inequality in access to air-conditioned environments.Unlike Cooling Patch, the relief of the Chilly Popper is only available to people who can afford it.The two design fictions formed the basis for a focus group discussion.WHAT IF YOUR BODY DIDN'T NEED AIRCO?COOLING PATCH contains microneedles that painlessly release the patented KeepCool© technology into the body.KeepCool© makes the composition of the blood better resistant to heat and cools the body from the inside.Every citizen receives six free patches provided by government, which have an effect for a maximum of one week.Citizens can place the patch on their upper arm and replace it weekly for full effectiveness, or choose to use them less frequently.The patch can have some side effects: stiffness, tense muscles, shivering, tingling or numbness of certain body parts such as the legs, feet, or hands, nausea, bruising, and a change of skin tone.
Part of: Cuckoo chick pushing out reed warbler's egg.(c)2009 Anderson et al.Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
uncomfortable design fictions developed to disrupt the link between global warming and a growing demand for artificial space cooling among affluent households in relatively mild climates like the Netherlands.By assuming a persona willing and able to invest time and effort, learn new skills and change their expectations of comfort in the face of climate change, the fictions challenge dominant assumptions about what these users want, and open new design spaces for alternative forms of summer comfort.Besides disrupting the harmful cycle of global warming and the resulting turn to artificial cooling, the fictions helped us to work towards a new interface design that widens the comfort zone, leaving space for lower-impact alternatives to 'hatch'.