NEBourhoods – Public Power

Cool Street – Thermal health in public spaces through shading strategies

Vast areas of the public realm are becoming a threat to our thermal health as the urban fabric we designed decades ago, can not mitigate the increasing heat exposure of the climate change. Posing a health risk to vulnerable groups and therefore exlusion from the public life, this project aims to design shading potentials of sociocultural empowerment in urban life.

The effect of shading on pedestrian temperature exposure and health as a climate adaptation strategy is a highly effective application, as large unused and overheated areas are no anomaly to Neuperlach, but a character of every European city.

The goal is to establish demonstrators with social value, measured and evaluated by the public usability and inclusion on the one hand and the ecological and economic valorisations on the other. The demonstrators, as part of the public realm, address the existing unused or underutilized areas like large street intersections as well as areas with little social or ecological benefit. The project empowers neighbourhoods to experience the benefits of climate-responsive design in a playful and meaningful way of creating identity in usable and valuable space.