Context

Figure 1.2 Labor camps in Sharjah showcasing the issues and problems of migrant workers (Source: Google) temperature well below 19°C, with the outdoor air temperature ranging between 40°C -50°C. This sudden change between the inside and the outside temperatures harms the body as it experiences heat stress when forced to go abruptly from a scorching environment into an air-conditioned one and vice versa. It can cause severe respiratory infections, breathing difficulties, and muscular spasms, among other conditions (Kannan 2012).

This thermal shock crisis poses a challenge for sustainable environmental practices to enhance occupants’ comfort, health, and well-being. Rather than experiencing a sudden temperature change, one should slowly adapt to this shift. This opens up the potential of how vernacular transitional spaces or a series of transitional spaces can be revived to help achieve this gradual change in indoor and outdoor temperatures while improving the comfort levels of the surrounding indoor areas.

1.2 Context

Sharjah is one of the most populous emirates and the cultural capital of the United Arab Emirates. Located at approximately 25.35oN and 55.42oE, it can be classified as a Hot Desert Climate (Köppen BWh) with extensively hot and humid summers and relatively warm winters.

In the last two decades, Sharjah has witnessed rapid financial and urban growth with an upsurge in construction activities. However, the small local Emirati population could not satisfy the labor demand for these economic activities and projects. Therefore, Sharjah began to host migrant construction worker populations as the demand for labor increased. As a result, these migrant populations grew significantly in the past decade and proved to be the most effective and efficient source of labor (Ali 2010).

Although ironically, the living condition of these migrant workers who built these sky-soaring structures in the first place is a bleak story of ignorance at its best and labor abuse at its worst. The labor camps are characteristically unsanitary and substandard, posing severe health hazards to the workers. Figures 1.2 illustrates and lists the issues of construction workers in labor camps. They are stripped of liminality, with a sharp distinction between the indoors and the outdoors. Moreover, the mandatory air conditioning at these camps, generally with a setpoint of 19°C, constructs a vast difference in the scorching outdoor and indoor temperatures, resulting in severe heat-related

No Liminal Spaces | Thermal Shock

Inadequate Daylight and Natural Ventilation Underutilized Social Spaces