Studio Idaë

Urban design

Aéro-Seine #2

The project Aéro-Seine deals with the temperature increase in urban space. Dense cities, with many impervious surfaces, and non vegetated, will be more and more faced with the heat island effect.
In Paris, for instance, the daily middle temperatures are already around 2 to 3°C up to the rest of the region? This can reach up 10°C in the summer.

Therefore the City of Paris has a specificity that may be an effective reponse to that issue : the non-drinkable water network. By the 19th century, Paris had set up a network for non-drinkable water to be used for watering public gardens and cleaning the streets. This system draws water from the main river, Seine. The water then goes to three water plants where it is just filtered no treated chemically. What is interesting with this water system is that it enables to provide a cheaper and less energy consuming than drinkable water.

Aéro-Seine is a cooling point for public spaces that cool the ambient air thanks to evaporation of water thanks to a porous material. In period of strong heat or heatwaves, municipal cleaning agents may open the valve of this device. Once open, the water rises in a small tank and then passes through a grid. The water then spreads on a porous surface and evaporates, providing cooling ambient air.

The device has been complemented by floor markings designed with children living in the neighbourhood.

A team of researchers (Water department of the City of Paris) have done some temperature measurements during two summers.