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Air Conditioned: Tempering the air and water of suburban Purto Rico
Fall 2023
Advisor: Craig Douglas
In the context of climate change, heat poses the largest risk. Our cities physically contribute to the problem and are largely unprotected from its increasing intensity. Within San Juan, people move from one air-conditioned bubble to the next to avoid the hot climate, whilst the mechanical AC units that shelter them add to the production of excess heat. This is no more present than within the dense urban fabric of the city’s suburbs that are largely bereft of vegetation, paved, and drained of moisture creating an intensely heated space. Consequently, outdoor public realm is avoided.
The project intervenes within the urban fabric of the city to generate a network of passive cooling spaces throughout the city as an infrastructural system in the context of a changing climate and increasing energy instability. The project harvests, stores, and treats stormwater runoff to lessen storm impact and utilises the stored water as a cooling infrastructure to reduce heat stress across the community. These interventions occur along key typologies composed at three key scales: the connection (circulation pathways), intersections (the meeting of circulation pathways), and nodes (spaces of gathering). The goal of the project is to create a new thermally accessible public realm returning urban outdoor space to community members to commute, gather, share and celebrate all while creating a more resilient future.
Process & Pieces
