There’s nothing better than sipping on warm water when it’s bloody cold. Not only we humans know this, but also the Japanese snow monkeys since 1963. The story goes like this: One winter’s day, a couple of tourists were bathing in a natural hot spring in the garden of a hotel in Nagano, a region in the heart of Japan with snow-capped Alps and steaming and simmering geysers. Suddenly a female macaque dove after an apple that had rolled into the geyser. She landed in the steaming water, felt a wonderful new sensation and then couldn’t get out of the natural pool.
The news about that hot water quickly spread across the entire snow monkey population. Soon all natural hot springs of Nagano were full of paddling and relaxing macaques. This to the annoyance of the tourists and the local population, who no longer got to take their bath rest, but to the joy of primatologists all over the world. Because in this brand new bathing behavior they saw proof that there is also a culture among apes: a collection of social customs and traditions that can change within a generation. In the same period that Westerners massively exchanged the fireplace or oil stove for central heating, the snow monkeys taught their young to swim in order to get through the winter warmer.
The bathing snow monkeys have since become a tourist attraction. A ‘snow monkey express’ drives to a deepened area especially for the animals onsen (Japanese geyser), where tourists can marvel at those cute red-headed monkeys squinting their eyes and stretching out their arms in sheer delight in the water.
Meanwhile, the scientists who observe the monkeys can see through that idyllic picture a little more easily. Macaques are huge despots and nepotists, and around the geyser there is a rock-hard hierarchy. For example, observation shows that high-ranking snow monkeys bathe much longer and are flead more often in the water. Drying up after the steam bath is a breeze for the alpha monkey, a spot has been reserved for him in the middle of the tightly huddled group (macaques huddling) while the lower bats on the outside of the circle are shivering in the snow. For the macaques, warmth is the stake and outcome of a constant and brutal power struggle.
Vladimir Putin
With a little imagination, a line can be drawn from the Japanese snow monkeys to Vladimir Putin and his tactics to divide the European continent and weaken opponents by driving up gas prices. On this continent, too, warmth and comfort will be the focus this winter and the outcome of a despotic struggle for power.
With a price ceiling for an average energy consumption, the Dutch government wants to prevent people from having to go deep into debt to keep it warm this winter. But not all problems are solved with this. Some families have already built up a debt in the summer that is not easy to clear. And people with a large or poorly insulated house still have a high bill, even with the price ceiling.
And then there is another, equally important reason to spoil ourselves with less heat this winter: climate change continues even in wartime. And yes, large consumers in particular should take note – households use only 13 percent of all energy, while industry absorbs 42 percent. But also consumers who use gas would not be out of place a little heat shame. That thermostat has to go down, for peace, for the knuckles, for the planet.
Thick blankets
But anyone who, like the undersigned, is a walking ice lump in winter, is very much looking forward to a lower house temperature. I spent my childhood watching MTV close to the Etna stove in my parental home. As a starting journalist I lived for a while in an ice-cold house, the landlord and roommate thought the cold was ‘just an emotion’ and refused to turn up the heating. I still remember how hard it was to open the thick blankets in the morning, how gloomy I felt when I could produce clouds with my breath in my bedroom.
Warm, I associate that with ‘cozy’. When I visit people who have the heating on low, it subconsciously feels as if they are not really happy with my arrival, and would rather save their energy for someone nicer. And I especially recognize myself in the Japanese snow monkeys, I can relax endlessly in Finnish outdoor saunas, Turkish steam baths or under the jets of my own shower, with my eyes closed.
That lower thermostat also raises questions. How do I keep it cozy in the house when it is less warm? Does a colder house feel like a home? Can we still go back to less comfort?
Yes, says Lenneke Kuijer, industrial designer and assistant professor at Eindhoven University of Technology. According to Kuijer, we have simply become accustomed to heat that we do not need. ‘What people experience as comfortably warm has changed enormously over time,’ says Kuijer via a Zoom connection. ‘Take my parents, who lived as a young couple on a houseboat, in the winter there was sometimes a layer of ice on their blanket. Grandma and grandpa lived on a farm, only the kitchen was heated. That may have been cold, but they didn’t find it uncomfortable.’
To keep moving
A fully heated house is the result of a culture change, a new habit, as well as a high room temperature. ‘But you can adapt to a slightly lower room temperature of 18 degrees, especially if you keep moving and dress warmly.’
Kuijer’s research shows how people have moved from one heated room during the day to a fully heated house in the past century. In Great Britain she conducted research into the history of heating social housing. She studied reports from the UK Housing Commission. ‘And it shows that the standards about how people should stoke kept changing. In the early 1960s, for example, the committee found that children needed the peace and quiet to be able to do homework in their own bedroom, but at that time bedrooms were not heated, only in the event of illness or childbirth. They stayed in the kitchen, and it was warm there. The idea that children should be able to use their room during the day was the decisive push towards the introduction of central heating.’ Other social developments also influenced the heating policy of English families. “When Queen Elizabeth was crowned in 1953, that was a reason for many people to buy a television. And with that television came the need to heat the living room, while previously the fireplace was not lit there, that was just too much effort.’
According to Kuijer, houses in both England and the Netherlands are increasingly better insulated against the cold. Yet we use much more energy than ever. ‘That is not only in the number of rooms, but also in the number of hours that are heated. For example, a significant group of Dutch people are used to sleeping under a thin blanket at night with the heating on, while a night temperature of 15 degrees can save you a lot of gas.’
According to Kuijer, this winter offers opportunities to combat energy waste, because energy saving is now a topic of discussion due to the high prices. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I think everyone should be helped through the winter, but it’s good if we change our behavior. This is possible by not heating all rooms and by finding alternatives to central heating.’
Local heating
Kuijer points to Japan, where much less energy is used in winter. ‘The Japanese often heat locally. Many households have a kotatsu, a low dining table with a blanket over it and a heating element underneath that you can use to warm your lower body. Many Japanese also wear a padded, comfortable inner jacket, a to handle. That is much more sustainable than heating an entire house.’
That local, person-oriented heating has another advantage. Because people differ quite a bit in terms of heat management, especially men and women, TNO researcher Boris Kingma explains over the phone: ‘Your body temperature is determined by the ratio between surface area and body volume, among other things. That ratio is less favorable for women than men, they lose relatively more heat.’ Women also have less muscle tissue that produces heat. As a result, they cool down earlier. Kingma: ‘This cooling is noticeable in the feet and hands. When the body gets cold, the blood vessels to the ends are closed and you get cold fingers and toes.’
The solution for those mutual heat differences: a base temperature of 18 or 19 degrees in combination with local heat sources such as electric pillows, electric blankets and extra clothing. Kingma: ‘You can easily achieve a good microclimate by wearing different layers, by buying a fleece blanket, and putting on woolen socks and thermal underwear. And which of course also works very well: huddling. Sitting close together on the couch so that the body surface that you expose to the cold becomes smaller.’
According to Kingma, 18 degrees may be a bit of a problem in the beginning. ‘But your body gets used to that new temperature after about ten days, that’s called habituation. If you are healthy, you will experience cold differently at that temperature. For example, you no longer get the shivers, it bothers you less.’
In fact, all houses should have a heat pump, solar panels and optimal insulation. But that is not feasible for every house and by no means affordable for everyone. Kingma therefore has another suggestion for poorly insulated houses with single glazing this winter. ‘We have a manual for a do-it-yourself secondary window on the TNO website. That is nothing more than a self-timbered wooden frame that you put together with a few wooden beams and shrink film and fix it in front of your window. You should also make the most of the weather. Open all curtains when the sun is shining and close them in bad weather. Compartmentation is also a good solution: don’t heat all the rooms or divide your room with furniture and only heat the part where you sit.’
Ultimately, according to Kingma, we should do more ourselves, with our own bodies. ‘We have been able to defend ourselves against cold throughout human evolution. Every time we got cold, our body sent out a signal: change your behavior, get moving or put on something warm. Unfortunately, we have outsourced our heating and cooling too much to buildings, central heating boilers and air conditioners, while we can solve a lot with behaviour.’
Do it yourself
Smart, sustainable and local heating (and cooling) is therefore the motto. That is also the approach of this design issue, which is entirely devoted to warmth. On page 36 you can read how people with special houses, from a former church to a cinema, are still keeping it cozy this winter. On page 48, reporter Jeroen Junte speaks to textile designer Borre Akkersdijk about his ingenious and internationally highly sought-after warm knitted fabrics. On our trend pages, plenty of attention is paid to handy and sustainable designs that cool or warm your home. For those who want to get started with sustainable solar energy on a small scale, designer Marjan van Aubel made a manual for a do-it-yourself solar lamp.
Also in this issue attention is paid to warmth in a metaphorical sense, to the longing for a safe and secure home. In a moving interview by Sara Berkeljon, writer Karina Schaapman tells how she came up with the idea for the decor of the wildly popular children’s book series after a difficult childhood. The Mouse House. ‘When I started Het Muizenhuis, I finally wanted to deal with the soft sides of life. Creating a safe, warm world.’ Schaapman’s designs are comforting: they breathe a warm hope for a more beautiful, tolerant and non-violent world. ‘The Muizenhuis had to be caring, an environment where exclusion does not exist. Where things are different with the neighbors, but that is not a threat.’