Strategies for making parks cool, inviting community cooling centers during extreme heat.
Researchers at Princeton University are looking for ways to cool urban parks, reports Patrick Sisson, so they can serve as neighborhood cooling centers during extreme heat waves. According to professor Elie Bou-Zeid, “It’ll certainly be more pleasant to be in a park than in some indoor stadium where nobody wants to go.”
The strategies being tested include:
- Kirigami: a paper cutting and folding technique that can be used in architecture to control air flow and make structures cooler.
- Misters: common in places like Palm Springs, misters can significantly cool the air.
- Cold tubes: panels with cold water pipes “draw in heat from the bodies of people standing outside the structure, making them feel cooler without actually cooling the surrounding air.”
Read the full story: Cooling Parks Will Help Cities During Record-Breaking Heat Waves
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Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority