Shade, Breeze, Cooling

Noof group
Gran vía – San Antón
2026

Shade, Breeze, Cooling directly addresses the growing thermal vulnerability of public space, proposing an intervention capable of generating specific environmental conditions: shade, cooling and habitability. In response to rising temperatures and the intensification of heatwaves, the proposal sets out an artificial landscape that acts directly on the urban atmosphere.

Far from representing nature or simulating a garden, the project assembles structure, matter and water to actively modify the climatic conditions of its surroundings. Through a modular, economical and scalable system —based on dry assembly with standardised elements, timber boards and a suspended water-misting system— it forms a device capable of transforming the experience of the space.

The combination of artificial shade and evaporative cooling reduces direct solar radiation and lowers the perceived temperature, generating a distinct atmosphere within the city. The intervention thus shifts the focus from permanent form toward the climatic experience of the body.

Beneath its structure, public space becomes a place to stay, meet and rest. Rather than offering a definitive solution to urban overheating, the project proposes the possibility of modulating climate through reversible, accessible interventions, activating a shared environmental awareness and framing comfort as a collective question.

noof group

noof group is a collaborative practice based between Chile and Spain, working between Santiago and Barcelona. Its members trained in Antofagasta, in the Atacama Desert —a context marked by extreme aridity, solar radiation and water scarcity, conditions that have shaped their way of thinking about architecture. Their work understands the built environment as a mediator between body, matter and atmosphere, and unfolds as a field of material and environmental experimentation grounded in an economy of means and constructive intelligence. The practice combines research, representation and design from a perspective attentive to climate, territory and available resources.