Earthen Comforts: Airing Earth is a courtyard installation that stages mass and fiber as shared infrastructures for collective comfort in the Los Angeles summer. Building on the recent exhibition Collective Comfort: Airing on Possibilities, the project adapts non-mechanical cooling strategies from desert contexts into Craft Contemporary’s courtyard. Earthen thermal mass supports anchor the site, paired with a lightweight, woven canopy that modulates shade, air movement, and light. These elements work together to create layered microclimates, offering visitors differentiated atmospheres of temperature and texture as they move along the courtyard’s reinforced north-to-south axis. Beyond function, the project reframes thermal design as a civic enterprise, cultivated through shared practices rather than individualized air-conditioning. Public engagement extends beyond collective fabrication to include a symposium on heat, material agency, and thermodynamic literacy. Together, these efforts foreground shared learning and experimental making as urgent design responses to increasing heat insecurity in cities.

Liz Gálvez is a registered architect and assistant professor of architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, where she directs the (Im)material Matters Lab. Her practice, Office e.g., investigates building technologies—historical and emerging—through environmental responsibility and material experimentation. Gálvez’s work bridges design, fabrication, and environmental performance, with a focus on ephemeral and degradable building systems. Her recent exhibition, Collective Comfort: Airing on Possibilities (Center for Architecture + Design, San Francisco, 2024–25), presented full-scale prototypes for non-mechanical cooling in desert cities. Her projects have been recognized with The Architectural League Prize, exhibited internationally, and supported by competitive grants. Through both teaching and practice, she engages architecture as a civic and ecological enterprise, asking how material practices can address climate change while cultivating joy, performance, and collective care.