Assignment 6: The Thermal Environment and the Human Experience

Above: My position on the southern plinth of Fayerweather Hall.

It’s Sunday morning at approximately 10:00 AM, and I’m perched on one of the concrete ledges that borders Fayerweather Halls southern stairs. The dry bulb temperature is 65° Fahrenheit and the wet bulb is 51°. A slight breeze of 3 miles per hour makes the air feel a bit cooler still, but not uncomfortable as I feel content in a t-shirt and khaki pants. As I sit down, the first sensation that I feel is the cold concrete slab on which I am sitting, as well as the concrete column that I am resting my back against. Their material temperatures are 55° and 52°, respectively. Their massive forms are still storing the cool air temperatures of the night before and now conducting that temperature onto my legs and back, providing a cold but not uncomfortable balance to the morning sunlight radiating heat onto my face.

While I sit calmly and pay attention to the small inconsistencies in the current weather condition, it is suddenly much busier and more elaborate than what is typically noticeable. Air currents swirl around the corner of the building behind me and to my right as well as between the columns to my left, resulting in a whirlpool of air around me that is constantly shifting speed and direction. These winds primarily chill my arms and the back of my neck, but occasionally slip up the leg opening of my pants or down the back of my shirt and give unexpected but not unpleasant rushes of cool air to my body.

As time passes I’m becoming acclimated to the once noticeably cold surfaces of the concrete that I am resting on. Reaching down to touch it with my hand still results in similar sensations of cold to when I first sat down almost 30 minutes ago, but my back and legs are now hardly registering the cold material as a noticeable difference in temperature. It is still drawing a small amount of heat conduction from my body, but it has diminished to a low and comfortable level.

During my time sitting here, I feel that taking notice of the specific conditions of the climate and materials around me has provided an extremely complete and immersive experience of what would otherwise be just another cool Autumn morning. Combining the feelings of touch I have been experiencing with the sounds of rustling leaves and the colors of Autumn foliage around me, I feel foolish for not stopping to experience such things more often. Typically, brushing my hand against concrete or stonework as i walk by results in a truncated feeling of coolness that I do no stop to fully experience, and the swirling breezes around me are just forces to push the leaves in front of my path. Having completed this experience, I feel that I will go out of my way to find such conditions much more often and take the time to really feel what is occurring around me.