Thermocultures

Doctoral thesis. (2022–). Dissertation tentative title: ”How Heat Got Out of Hand – A Study of Three Thermocultures 1870-1970”

Dissertation advisors: Prof. Barnabas Calder, Dr Ranald Lawrence, Prof Panu Savolainen

The doctoral thesis investigates how the relationship with domestic heat evolved in Helsinki between the 1870s and 1970s. By presenting three case studies, it examines the development of ways of organising fuel, its supply chain (or flow), heating, comfort, and exhaust. By tracing this very sequence—and the spatial, material, and infrastructural means that supported it—each case study highlights the interconnections between these components within a broader configuration, or thermoculture, a term first introduced by media scholar Nicole Starosielski to analyse the cultural meanings of heat and cold, here adapted to examine how architecture mediated domestic heat. Each case anchors the analysis in a particular apartment building, treated as a material site for understanding how heat was mediated. The framework of thermoculture offers both an interpretive lens and new insights into the cultural organisation of domestic comfort through the historical context. Together, the case studies allow for comparison across time, demonstrating how the components of each thermoculture evolved in relation to one another. Rather than presenting a linear story of either progress or regression, the thesis foregrounds what changed, what was compromised, and what forms of culture were sustained or displaced.

Helsinki provides a particularly instructive lens: its rapid urbanisation and northern climate made heating an existential concern, while its position as a harbour city in a forest-rich country placed it at the intersection of domestic and imported fuels. Like many Nordic cities, it developed a culture of maintaining exceptionally warm interiors during the heating season, making the spatial and material organisation of heat central to everyday life. The thesis asks whether thermocultures that were shaped during the era of cheap fossil fuels continue to inform how heating is understood and designed today. By tracing the architectural entanglements of fuel, comfort, and exhaust, it suggests that greater awareness of these legacies can inform contemporary renovation strategies, building standards, and heating transitions—especially in the face of the climate crisis.