Specific Ambiguity: On Tropical Space and the Dissolution of the Interior

Abstract

This article explores the dissolution of the architectural interior through the lens of tropical architecture, proposing the notion of specific ambiguity as a mode of practice and thought situated in the equatorial condition. Drawing on professional and theoretical research, it argues that in the tropics, comfort is not achieved through insulation or mechanical control, but through negotiation—an ongoing calibration between body, climate, and matter, mediated by spatial disposition. The text situates this understanding within the broader critique of modernity’s disciplinary isolation, where the interior became a symbol of separation from the world. By revisiting vernacular and contemporary practices across tropical geographies, it suggests that architecture can reclaim environmental intelligence through porous, transitional spaces that expand the notion of the interior into the atmospheric and territorial. Ultimately, the tropical condition is framed not as an exotic exception, but as a critical paradigm and vibrant architecture laboratory from which to rethink comfort, sustainability, and architectural ethics in the context of planetary crisis.