Title: Natural Cooling

Work: Design, Urban Development

Location: Bolzano, 2018

Collaboration: CIPRA, Alena Dziedzitz

Details: This project has an urban planning approach that takes up the theme of natural cooling in the city. Bolzano, is one of the hottest cities in Italy, with an increase in temperatures during the summer months.

What can be created to make life more pleasant for people in urban areas? With the goal of the project to make the urban space more liveable through simple, natural cooling modules, the project concentrates on a meaningful redesign and reinterpretation of a bus stop, which has a cooling and shading function.

Through material research it became obvious that materials such as concrete, steel and glass are mainly used in the city. On the one hand, these materials absorb heat and store it and on the other they are produced with high energy consumption. In order to bring a circular approach into the city, an area of application was chosen to integrate nature into the city. Local resources form the basis for the prototype with little consumption of energy, the use of primary materials and without long transport distances. The material loam in combination with plants were used, because they influence the microclimate through evaporation cooling. 

In order to create comfortable living environments for people, a transformation of cities is necessary. The aim of this research project is to reduce the temperature in urban areas. This project demonstrates the importance of natural materials and the value of greening in urban planning. At the same time it will give impulses for sustainable urban planning in the future, based on the participation of the local population. Resources can be used again and again for new buildings without having to take more raw materials from nature through the circular approach.

Finally the approach shows how a bus stop can be transformed into a community place with an urban gardening approach.

    Technical Drawings bei Alena Dziedzitz