In her influential book Thermal Delight in Architecture, Lisa Heschong contends that people take pleasure in variably hot and cold environments – imagine, for instance, sitting outside in a hot tub during winter. The exterior of the Microtherme installation by Matter Design resembles a floating wooden shed, but inside, visible through portal-like holes and accessed through its open bottom, is a sculpted concrete interior. The temperature of the structure ranges from a chilly 9 degrees Celsius to a stifling 50 degrees thanks to embedded copper tubes carrying frigid or scalding water. Stepping inside to feel these extremes is a destabilizing and thrilling experience.

Project: Microtherme

Location: Boston, U.S.

Firm: Matter Design, U.S.

Team: Brandon Clifford and Wes McGee with Myung Duk Chung, Etta Dannemann, Cody Glen, Matthew Johnson, Asa Peller, Christoph Reinhart, Maya Shopova, Tyler Swingle and Luisel Zayas