While the significance of the interior has recently been explored from a range of disciplinary perspectives, there has been no extensive study of discomfort, or the role it plays in the cultural history of architecture. By examining discomfort's physical, emotional, conceptual, psychological and aesthetic impact on the experience of architecture, the contributors to this volume offer an alternate, cultural approach to the study of architecture and the built environment.

Thinking Through Discomfort (David Ellison and Andrew Leach), 2. 'Good God Mrs Nicholson!' Slaves and Domestic Disquiet in Eighteenth-century Scotland (Dolly MacKinnon), 3. Thoreau's Economy (Andrew Ballantyne), 4. Wandering Sensations: Supernatural Discomforts and Modern Domesticity (David Ellison), 5. Climatic Discomforts: [Sub]tropical Climates, Racial Character and the Nineteenth-century Queensland House (Deborah van der Plaat), 6. Technological Progress as an Obstruction to Domestic Comfort: Hugo Van Kuyck and the Introduction of the American Example in Post-war Belgium (Fredie Floré), 7. Everything but the Orgy Truck: Shopping for Radical Architecture at MoMA, 1972 (Alexandra Brown), 8. It's Not me, It's You (Andrew Leach), 9. The Wolfers House by Henry Van de Velde, as Occupied by Herman Daled (Bart Verschaffel), 10. Blind Windows: A Particularly Domestic Discomfort (Chris L. Smith), 11. Reality without Restraint: Bathtime in the Villa dall'Ava (Christophe Van Gerrewey)