Conditioned comfort: A multi-scalar analysis of residential heat adaptation in the tropical city-state of Singapore

Source abstract

Many cities are epicentres of rising heat, and cooling demand is driving up household energy use. Yet domestic heat adaptation remains poorly understood, particularly how thermal comfort and cooling practices emerge within households. A mixed-methods study with high-rise apartments in Singapore combined a household population survey with home environmental audits and in-situ thermal readings ( N = 1009 respondents across 416 households), complemented by in-depth interviews with 13 households. Multilevel analyses showed that (a) 70% of participants felt warm or hot at home without air-conditioning; (b) thermal comfort was associated with factors across socio-spatial scales namely individual (age, outdoor exposure), household (composition, window-closing habits, indoor clutter), dwelling (housing type), and environmental (area-level urban heat vulnerability, outdoor heat index) attributes; and (c) comfort and cooling practices were interlinked – those who felt warmer used air-conditioning more and rated it as more effective. Qualitative findings contextualised these patterns by showing that warmth is not universally undesirable, residents may overlook practices that impede airflow, and cooling strategies are negotiated within households. These findings show that domestic heat adaptation cannot be understood through building conditions alone and indicate that improving heat resilience requires attention to household processes, including behaviours affecting airflow, shared cooling routines, and intergenerational habits.