Cooling the city
5 May, 2022
Urban areas are heating up at an alarming rate, with city dwellers exposed to extreme temperatures that are estimated to increase 800% by 2050. With heatwaves being one of the most dangerous climate risks, the demand for greenhouse producing cooling systems will rise dramatically. With this in mind, the research and design studio Framlab have developed research project called Oversky. Their designs explore the capacity of a new infrastructural system, leveraging passive technologies to cool cities. The modular system, inspired by clouds, can float over and mitigate the effect of the areas largely responsible for the urban heat island phenomenon like road networks and parking lots, reclaiming this space for people while cooling down the neighbourhood. The system is designed to reduce heat buildup by reflecting solar back into space while absorbing almost no radiation, maintaining a much lower surface temperature than the surrounding environment. Radical projects such as Oversky play an important role in the adaption of alternative solutions to combat climate change.
Signal title | Generation | Channel | Region | Issue | Time Horizon | Sector | |
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Cooling the city |
Millennials, Gen Z, Gen Beta, Gen Alpha | IRL | EU | - | Far | Architecture, Technology, Sustainability |