Heatwaves, driven by climate change, challenge urban resilience and heighten health risks by deepening reliance on energy-intensive cooling. This project introduces KlimaStol, a solar-powered, robotically 3D-printed concrete cooling chair designed to mitigate outdoor heat stress through conductive cooling. Building on a prior wood-based bench, the chair merges ergonomic design with material innovation for efficiency and sustainability. Its contoured form increases body contact for heat transfer, while custom low-carbon, high-conductivity concrete lowers environmental impact. Embedded copper pipes circulate chilled water from a solar-driven heat pump, enabling effective cooling. Robotic fabrication created complex geometries, and infrared imaging verified immediate, uniform surface temperature drops, positioning KlimaStol as resilient outdoor infrastructure.
Team:
Thermal Architecture Lab: Dorit Aviv (PI),Ji Yoon Bae (PhD Candidate, Project Lead at TAL), Qinming Hou (MSD EBD), Hong Wei (MSD EBD)
Polyhedral Structure Lab: Masoud Akbarzadeh, Yefan, Zhi, Amir Motavaselian, Andrea Romero
Cooling System Engineering: Eric Teitelbaum (AIL Research)
Funding: This project was funded by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
Publication: Bae, Ji Yoon, Yefan Zhi, Eric Teitelbaum, Masoud Akbarzadeh, and Dorit Aviv. 2025. “KlimaStol: 3D-Printed Cooling Chair for Mitigating Outdoor Heat Stress.” Paper presented at the 45th Annual Conference of the Association of Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA), Miami.
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