Architecture Faculty and Students Test a Novel, Community-Driven Response to Heat Islands

Penn researchers worked with North10, a nonprofit in North Philadelphia, to bring a prototype cooling shelter to Hunting Park one day in August, an opportunity for community members to provide feedback and learn about the health impacts of heat. (Image: Ji Yoon Bae)

July marked the 14th month in a row of record high global temperatures, and as the month ended, the National Weather Service said Philadelphia was on track for its third warmest summer since 1874. While 94° days are hardly pleasant for suburbanites, heat can be worse for residents in pockets of Center City, South Philadelphia, and North Philadelphia.

In Hunting Park, a North Philadelphia neighborhood, temperatures can be as much as 20° hotter than in other parts of the city. Operating out of the Lenfest Center, the nonprofit North10 serves the Hunting Park-East Tioga area by offering youth programs, workforce training, affordable housing, a community market, and more. Nikki Bagby, chief external affairs officer, says people of all ages who come for services wait in the heat to catch a bus, and the bus stop has no overhang.

Penn researchers from Weitzman, School of Nursing, and School of Engineering and Applied Science developed a novel prototype to address this issue: a solar-powered wooden bus shelter that provides shade and radiant cooling.

This is thanks to a grant from the Penn Community Collaboratory for Co-Creation (Penn4C), a joint initiative from Penn Nursing and Penn Engineering “based on the recognition that technological solutions should be designed with active engagement of marginalized communities.”

Dorit Aviv, assistant professor of architecture and director of the Thermal Architecture Lab in Weitzman, led the research, design, and construction of the prototype with a team of students, while Jacoby provided messaging on the health impacts of heat and surveyed community members. The prototype is called Tenopy—a canopy created in collaboration with North10—and community members tested it out one day in August.

“We are aiming to provide an experience of being outside in the heat and then walking in here, sitting, and feeling relief while still being in an open-air structure,” Aviv says. “This can have important implications for how we think about urban cooling shelters for the future, especially given the need for open-air structures in light of what we’ve seen during the COVID pandemic. We also learned a lot from the community collaboration, and we hope that if the pilot is successful, we can work together toward long-lasting solutions.”

The prototype was designed as a temporary shelter, while installing a permanent structure involves material and structural enhancements and getting necessary permits for installation, Aviv says. She wants to see this experiment turned into a more permanent solution and replicated elsewhere.

Read the full story at Penn Today.