Professor Rybczynski of architecture at McGill University, investigated privacy and comfort. It was in the 17th century Netherlands where comfort is seen in the interiors of Vermeer.

It is strange to realize how many things that are taken for granted as natural and eternal were invented at a specific time and place. Not just objects like electrical appliances but attitudes and perceptions. Like privacy, for example. Or the need for physical comfort. What is comfort, anyway, and…