A/C CITY – Remote Control. © Wolfgang Lehrner, 2024.

“Plenty of electricity can make your home of the future a house of marvels!” America's Independent Electric Light and Power Companies, advertisement, LIFE, September 10, 1956.

Air conditioning units mounted on façades in Singapore’s Chinatown. Dietmar Rabich, 2019. Creative Commons License.

A block of ice serves as a temporary place to cool off during a summer heatwave in Tokyo, Japan. © Christian Hepf, 2024.

Air Conditioned Opening: November 18, 2026, 7 pm | Duration: November 19, 2026 – April 4, 2027

Architecture between Comfort and Climate Change

Exhibition by the Architekturmuseum der TUM in the Pinakothek der Moderne and the TUM Chair of Building Technology and Climate Responsive Design.

Interior comfort is contributing to planetary discomfort. Buildings today account for roughly a quarter of global CO₂ emissions, and heating and cooling alone constitute close to 40% of all energy-related emissions. Rising temperatures will only further intensify energy use related to indoor climate control, forcing us to confront not only how we build to cool spaces but why indoor comfort has become culturally entrenched. Yet comfort is not a universal quantity; it has emerged from Western scientific and geopolitical perspectives that marginalise diverse climatic practices.

Uncovering how decades of architectural practice have locked us into energy‑intensive cooling systems that often exceed our real needs, this exhibition proposes to rethink our entitlement to bodily thermal comfort in a warming world. By tracing the hidden ecological, social, and economic costs of indoor environmental control, it invites visitors to reconsider the intertwined roles of architecture, technology, culture, and the human body. Foregrounding the agency of users and architects, it seeks pathways in adaptation and low-tech approaches toward a more inclusive, climate-responsive, and resilient future.

Curators: Cara Hähl-Pfeifer, Bilge Kobas, Sebastian Clark Koth

Concept and research: Cara Hähl-Pfeifer, Christian Hepf, Bilge Kobas, Sebastian Clark Koth, Sandra Persiani

Research assistant: Alice Morgane Fleury

Museum director: Andres Lepik

Research coordinator: Thomas Auer

Exhibition Design: optimist office

Graphic Design: Happy Little Accidents

Supported by

PIN. Freunde der Pinakothek der Moderne e.V. und den Kooperationspartner der Allianz
Freundeskreis Architekturmuseum TUM

Publication

The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive publication that explores key themes of the exhibition in depth through essays and images.

Editors: Cara Hähl-Pfeifer, Christian Hepf, Andres Lepik, Sandra Persiani
Advisory board: Thomas Auer, Bilge Kobas, Sebastian Clark Koth
Graphic Design: Happy Little Accidents
Publisher: Park Books