Thermal comfort contradiction in public spaces: The case of educational buildings

Creating thermally comfortable environments in public buildings is a challenging task. Part of the challenges evolves from the contradiction between the subjective nature of thermal comfort on one hand and the practical methods followed in providing it in built environments on the other hand, where the subjective nature emphasises individuality, but the practical methods entail centrality. This contradiction is obviously apparent in public buildings, including educational buildings, that frequently fail to satisfy the thermal comfort demands of their users. The chapter at hand discusses this idea by taking the educational buildings as a case study to understand the effects of centrality in providing thermal comfort.