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Over the summer, the backyard of the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities became a proving ground for a novel short-term solution to adapting yesterday’s ill-equipped public spaces for today’s extreme heat challenges. The temporary installation—Polinature, designed by architects Belinda Tato and Jose Luis Vallejo of Madrid-based Ecosistema Urbano and built from a kit of affordable and reusable materials (scaffolding, more than 1,400 native plants, and an inflatable canopy)—was conceived as a structure that can be plugged into existing environments to provide shade for humans and serve as a way station for pollinators such as honeybees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. The adaptable pavilion’s six white “pods” were lit by LEDs and its six orange “climatic bubbles” responded to current conditions in real time. If internal and external monitoring sensors detected high temperatures, for instance, the bubbles inflated and released a cooling breeze. While Polinature’s time on the Harvard campus was brief, Tato and Vallejo have made their drawings open-source, ensuring that anyone in the world needing relief from soaring temperatures can sustainably replicate the project.

Photo © Emilio P. Doiztua