Between tradition and comfort: the rural habitat as a livable shelter

Objective: To analyze the design of rural housing at a global level, focusing on the integration of thermal comfort and habitat characteristics, adapting to local climatic conditions through bioclimatic, vernacular and sustainable approaches. Architectural strategies in different regions are reviewed, highlighting the importance of adaptive solutions that consider cultural, environmental and socioeconomic factors. Methodology: This is an exploratory narrative review of the scientific literature between 2021 and 2024, using databases such as Scielo, Google Scholar, Scopus and ScienceDirect. Key terms related to architecture, housing and comfort were applied, and exclusion criteria were applied to obtain a final corpus of 25 relevant articles. Results: Traditional architectural forms are suitable for each local climate and vernacular architecture is a valuable resource for the occurrence of thermal comfort, although it faces challenges in the face of modernization and climate change, and barriers such as lack of awareness, clear policies, accessible financing and technical training to implement sustainable technologies are identified. Conclusions: Rural dwellings face challenges related to thermal comfort, habitability and sustainability, conditioned by climatic, cultural and socioeconomic factors, and that the combination of vernacular and bioclimatic approaches, together with sustainable technologies, is key to improve the quality of life in rural communities.