I think offices are kept at a “low” temperature because there is actually wide variation in temperature preferences and tolerances among normal humans, and maybe also because it is considered easier for women and skinny people to add a sweater than for others to change gender, lose weight, or wear ice packs.
I think I approve of this for spaces that aren’t going to have kids, but I think that for kid-centric spaces a higher temperature than is maximally comfy for large men is still correct? Maybe?
(Or you could try to maintain gradients and zones? I’ve found heated seats in cars to be really nice for accommodating groups with diverse temperature preferences, and maybe the heater under the table is enabling something similar?)
I yearn for the comfort of japanese style low tables… I like the theory “it allows adults and children to be at the same level”.
Or a pre-school or kindergym or (if a building design is opulent enough to offer room-specific temperature control) a two-year-old’s bedroom?
Small bodies have much higher surface area to volume ratios, and a 10 month old can barely even explain the problem they face!
In grocery stores when I was really little, I’d stay “just outside” the cold aisle, and then run to the other end to try to avoid the chill, when along with parents on a shopping trip who wanted to loiter in the middle of it. It was only much later that I understood the physics of why they weren’t bothered, and the psycho-politics of why no one optimized that stuff “for me”.
I just don’t remember ever minding cold as a child. Yes, I would run through the freezer isle, or jump around to keep my feet off the ground and to stay warm, but I would enjoy the running, it would fully address the problem for me. With pre-school kids, I feel like they’re always moving around a lot in this way, but I’m not sure.
I think offices are kept at a “low” temperature because there is actually wide variation in temperature preferences and tolerances among normal humans, and maybe also because it is considered easier for women and skinny people to add a sweater than for others to change gender, lose weight, or wear ice packs.
I think I approve of this for spaces that aren’t going to have kids, but I think that for kid-centric spaces a higher temperature than is maximally comfy for large men is still correct? Maybe?
(Or you could try to maintain gradients and zones? I’ve found heated seats in cars to be really nice for accommodating groups with diverse temperature preferences, and maybe the heater under the table is enabling something similar?)
+1 <3
Oh you mean like, 6-13 year old kids? Yeah maybe.
Or a pre-school or kindergym or (if a building design is opulent enough to offer room-specific temperature control) a two-year-old’s bedroom?
Small bodies have much higher surface area to volume ratios, and a 10 month old can barely even explain the problem they face!
In grocery stores when I was really little, I’d stay “just outside” the cold aisle, and then run to the other end to try to avoid the chill, when along with parents on a shopping trip who wanted to loiter in the middle of it. It was only much later that I understood the physics of why they weren’t bothered, and the psycho-politics of why no one optimized that stuff “for me”.
I just don’t remember ever minding cold as a child. Yes, I would run through the freezer isle, or jump around to keep my feet off the ground and to stay warm, but I would enjoy the running, it would fully address the problem for me. With pre-school kids, I feel like they’re always moving around a lot in this way, but I’m not sure.