An Urban Plug-in Evaporative Cooling Systems to Improve Urban Microclimatic Conditions in Rome

The research project is about design solutions for the integration of evaporative cooling systems in urban public spaces for the mitigation of the urban heat island effect and the improvement of microclimatic conditions. The study focuses on the definition of an architectural prototype, on the integrability of technological devices - greenery, evaporative ceramic systems, shading devices and nebulization appliances - and on the development of multi-criteria matrixes and simulation procedures for the comparison of different scenarios in terms of microclimatic conditions, energy and water consumption and functional spatial needs. Besides the design aspects, the prototype’s construction and installation was tested assuming a specific location within the city centre of Rome, Italy. From a methodological point of view, the research involved five phases: identification of design objectives and design strategies; definition of the meta-design concept of the design prototype; prototype development and fine-tuning of the different technological components; implementation of the prototype on pilot site; prototype assessment through the software simulations of the water and energy consumption of different configuration scenarios and microclimatic simulations. The simulations return a decrease of up to about 2°C in temperature and of about 1°C in UTCI, considering only the misting system, with a further decrease respectively by 2,7°C and 1,5°C, when nature based solution are added. Yet, the overall microclimate improvement occurs only at a punctual scale, involving mainly the exact area where the structure is placed.