Cooling cities without air conditioning
Introducing KlimaKover, a low-energy, modular system that uses 10x less power than conventional AC to cool public spaces.
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Kritika Kharbanda
Head of Sustainability, LEED AP BD+C
Director, Innovation and Sustainability, Partner
2025 is on track to be one of the hottest years on record, with extreme heat increasingly threatening urban populations. KlimaKover, developed in collaboration with our partners at the University of Pennsylvania and AIL Research, offers a low-energy, scalable solution. The shelter uses radiant cooling technology to reduce heat stress exposure while using 10 times less energy than conventional air conditioning.
Urban heat: risks and costs
Heatwaves are no longer rare. Traditional air-conditioning is expensive, energy-intensive, and largely unavailable in public spaces. Globally, AC accounts for nearly 10% of total electricity use and emits approximately 1 billion tons of CO₂ annually. Urban heat-related mortality carries annual costs of $200–300 per adult, comparable to the economic impact of air pollution. Millions of workers worldwide, particularly in construction and agriculture, are exposed to dangerous heat stress.
“We can imagine KlimaKover shading schoolyards, bus stops, street vendors, or construction sites, showing how low-energy cooling can scale across cities.”
Jakob Strømann-Andersen
Director, Innovation and Sustainability, Partner
KlimaKover tackles this issue as a modular system that can be mass-produced for approximately $75 per square foot. Constructed from 4’x4’ panels, it delivers radiant cooling and heating without condensation, can operate entirely on solar power, and requires no external water.
Our first prototype, located in New York on Governors Island, used a silky cedar wood product, upcycles from waste streams, called Carbon Smart Wood, selected for ease of disassembly.
What is radiant cooling?
The system circulates chilled water through microtubes in transparent radiant panels, drawing heat directly from the body. Fabric shading reduces heat exposure while maintaining open-air conditions – allowing natural breezes to enhance the cooling effect. The radiant panels can operate in hot and humid conditions, like New York City summers, due to an infrared transparent membrane that protects them from condensation. The pavilion is self-sufficient and low impact, requiring no additional energy infrastructure.
“Research from our partners at the University of Pennsylvania shows that the panels start to cool your body within 5-7 minutes, when the effect becomes apparent, and by 20 minutes the cooling sensation is pronounced,” says Kritika Kharbanda, Head of Sustainability, Henning Larsen.
Huge thanks to our partners on the project, University of Pennsylvania's Thermal Architecture Lab, which provided research, design simulations, and pilot evaluation for the pavilion. The project is funded by the Ramboll Foundation. Additional contributions to the Governors Island pavilion come from AIL Research, Fast+Epp, SKANSKA, SITU, Trust for Governors Island, Cambium, Mecho, Springs Window Fashions, Ontility (a brand of TERREPOWER), KM Associates of New York, Inc., and Tectonic Engineering.
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