Last week, we had the pleasure to open our installation "Climate Realignment: Tactical Adaptations to Urban Heat" at the Venice Architecture Biennale. The 19th Venice Architecture Biennale is curated by Carlo Ratti around the theme"Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective."

For Roofscapes, it represents an opportunity to materialize the findings of our research on the adaptation of existing envelopes to heatwaves. Building on our academic work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on the ground in Paris, our installation "Climate Realignment: Tactical Adaptations to Urban Heat" makes tangible several low-tech and non-destructive adaptation strategies that we are developing for the overheated roofs and facades of dense European urban centers.

The installation is organized around two scenarios, each consisting of models of three typical buildings in Paris. The first scenario illustrates the prevailing status quo, with increased reliance on active cooling systems that make it difficult to live outdoors, and eventually indoors. The second scenario details the climate realignment strategies developed by Roofscapes and adapted to each building type to shade, plant, make accessible and autonomous as many surfaces as possible in urban settings.

We built these models from zinc, stone, plaster and wood, so that their thermal properties would be comparable to those of existing buildings and could be made visible thanks to high-precision infrared thermal images generated with the invaluable help of Noxant. We look forward to continuing to develop such passive solutions, which we believe are crucial to curbing the massive deployment of air conditioning while enhancing the quality of life in urban environments. Our installation can be seen in the 3rd room of Venice's Arsenale until November 23, 2025. Thousands of visitors have already seen it, do not hesitate to send us your pictures if you pass by.

We would like to thank our supporters Meha Construction Bois and Topager for making this project possible, as well as the entire team who contributed to it.

Project team: Olivier Faber, Tim Cousin, Eytan Levi, Pierre Rioux, Wesley Sely, Vijay Rajkumar, Elvire Landon, Mathéo Morin

Film & sound: Iridescence Research Lab (IRL)

Drawings: Roofscapes, Pierre Rioux, Mosaic.cc

Special thanks: Latifa Alkhayat, Mateo Eiletz, Marie Le Coz, Matteo Silverio, Clarisse Cheung, Tara Heuzé-Sarmini, Constance Fichet, Toit de Paris

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