Air conditioning accounts for 9% of electricity used on earth and 3.2% of all greenhouse gasses. Even if some countries like Germany shuns its use, air conditioning releases close to one billion tons of CO2 each year.
As summers get longer and hotter; heatwaves become more commonplace; and tropical climates expand further north and south, the demand for climate control is set to grow significantly. This catch-22 dilemma seems insurmountable but new, more sustainable solutions are being developed as direly needed alternatives.
Take KlimaKover, a new public shelter concept dreamt up by Danish-American architecture firm Henning Larsen that uses 10 times less power than conventional systems and doesn’t come with a hefty financial burden.
Developed with the University of Pennsylvania and AIL Research, the modular structure harnessed radiant cooling technology and was engineered to be scalable. Deployed in any number of public spaces – especially those located in dense urban cores where extreme heat tends to concentrate – KilmaKover is also a more democratic solution available to those who might not otherwise be able to afford a personal device.
Produced for just US $75, each easily fitted-out panel dispenses radiant cooling and heating, when necessary. The 4 by 4-foot elements are held in place by frames made out of silky cedar wood upcycled from waste streams. The system runs on solar power.
For KlimaKover, its developers drew from the centuries-old methods of combining air and water in various forms of controlled configuration. In this case, chilled water is channeled through microtubes, pulling heat off of the body of a person in immediate proximity. There’s no residual condensation and the system can operate in especially humid weather. Fabric shading also reduces heat exposure while maintaining open-air conditions, ensuring natural breezes can flow evenly to enhance the cooling effect.
“Research from our partners at the University of Pennsylvania shows that the panels start to cool your body within 5-7 minutes, when the effect becomes apparent, and by 20 minutes the cooling sensation is pronounced,” says Kritika Kharbanda, Head of Sustainability, Henning Larsen.
A first prototype was installed on Governor’s Island and was operational through November. “[This] pavilion is just a first step,” says Jakob Stromann-Andersen, Henning Larsen’s Director of Innovation and Sustainability. “We can imagine KlimaKover shading schoolyards, bus stops, street vendors, or construction sites, showing how low-energy cooling can scale across cities.”
For more information on KlimaKover by Henning Larsen, please visit henninglarsen.com.
Photography by Erick Reifer Marchak, Chris Perez, and Kabir Sahni.
