Recovering the Street Life in a Climate Changing World
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Brief overview
Urban space has become a hostile territory for citizens. As a consequence, the use of public space has been gradually reduced, and today there are numerous situations in which it has been reduced to a mere connection between buildings or to direct the movement of residents from the building to the vehicles in the parking areas.
It is essential to reconvert most of the urban space, currently dedicated to mobility, to dedicate it to the multiplication of uses and citizens' rights, turning the streets into places for coexistence.
The driving force behind the Cartuja Qanat project is to decisively contribute to turning the aforementioned aspiration into a reality. Its motto is: “Reclaiming life on the street,” and its proposal is the development of minimally intrusive interventions in urban planning aimed at ensuring:
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the comfort of public space through noise control, air quality and thermal comfort.
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The attraction of public space based on the implementation of basic services for residents; the diversity of legal entities and the presence of urban greenery.
The Thermotechnology Group, led by Professor Servando Álvarez Domínguez and working within the framework of its research lines Characterization and Integration of Natural Techniques, and Urban Climate – Outdoor Comfort, has developed and characterized a catalog of elements and solutions that enable climate control in open spaces. This catalog has allowed the Group to design, size, and develop the pilot project on Avenida Tomas Alva Edison (PCT Cartuja, Seville), which achieves thermal comfort in these open spaces even during the worst periods of the Seville summer.
The idea gains even more traction because outdoor activities are taking on unprecedented importance compared to those held indoors. This is especially true in the pilot project, where two rapidly growing faculties and several research centers converge. This would allow for the creation of open classrooms, in line with a new open campus concept. This pilot space will be maintained by the Seville City Council, Emasesa (the municipal water company), the Cartuja Science and Technology Park (PCT Cartuja), and the University of Seville, primarily for their use. There, the Termotecnia Group will have an urban laboratory to test climate control solutions for open spaces over the next four years.
