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Heat Island Effect: The Latest Architecture and News

Cooling the City: How European Cities are Adapting to Extreme Heat

The summer of 2025 has brought extreme heat across Europe and beyond, with record-breaking temperatures and widespread climate-related impacts. Red alert warnings have been issued in France, Italy, and Spain as temperatures exceeded 46°C in parts of the Iberian Peninsula. These conditions have led to school closures, restrictions on outdoor work, and pressure on urban infrastructure, including power grids and public transport systems. The heatwave has simultaneously intensified wildfire risk across the Mediterranean. In western Turkey, ferocious wildfires near Izmir forced the evacuation of over 50,000 people as high winds and low humidity fueled rapidly spreading flames. In Spain's Catalonia region, two people died in a wildfire that raced across farmland and old structures in Torrefeta on July 1. Similar disasters have occurred in Greece, France, and Italy, with evacuations throughout southern Europe as widespread heat‑induced drought exacerbates fire season intensity.

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Coping with Extreme Heat: How Cities are Confronting the Heatwave in Eastern and Southern Europe

Eastern and Southern Europe is enduring a severe heatwave, with temperatures reaching over 40 degrees Celsius in many countries including Greece, Croatia, Macedonia, and Romania. Driven by hot air from North Africa, this prolonged heatwave has raised significant threats for residents and has strained the cities’ mechanisms for protection and climate mitigation. As the heatwaves expose the vulnerabilities of urban infrastructures, cities across Europe are striving to implement measures to address these challenges.

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Zaha Hadid Architects Reveals Climate-Resilient Design for Al Khuwair Waterfront in Oman

Zaha Hadid Architects have unveiled a large-scale project for the redevelopment of the Al Khuwair waterfront in downtown Muscat, the capital of Oman. The $1.3bn project covers an area of 3.3 million square meters. It aims to revitalize the area through sustainability-led design principles to accommodate the expected population growth, which is expected to almost double by 2040. The plans are developed in collaboration with Buro Happold to incorporate and transform the existing buildings on site, introduce coastal and climate resilience measures, and create an efficient transit-oriented infrastructure.

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On the Hottest Month on Record and How Cities Are Mitigating the Effects of Rising Temperatures

The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York has just announced that the month of July 2023 was hotter than any other month ever recorded in terms of global temperature. Spiking to 1.12 degrees Celsius above the 20th-century July average, this month was warmer than any month since 1850 when the NOAA database began. The climate crisis at large has made heat waves more prevalent, putting millions of people in danger. These growing effects of the climate crisis also severely affect cities worldwide, posing a threat to urban inhabitants globally.

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How are Cities Adapting to Heatwaves in the Face of Climate Change

The climate crisis has made heatwaves more likely and more intense around the world. Record-breaking high temperatures are being reported across the world. According to international data, the first week of July 2023 was the hottest week on record, putting millions of people in danger. All throughout this summer, recurring heatwaves have been affecting large portions of Asia, Europe, and the United States, priming the land for fires in places like Greece, Spain, and Canada, triggering unhealthy air warnings, evacuations, and heat-related deaths. The increasingly threatening effects of the climate crisis are also felt in cities worldwide, as extreme heat proves to be a rapidly growing health risk to millions of urban dwellers.

Cities are on the front lines of this public health emergency. People living in urban areas are among the hardest hit when heatwaves happen, partly because of urban heat islands. This is a phenomenon that occurs when cities replace the natural land cover with dense concentrations of surfaces that absorb and retain heat, like pavements and buildings. Heat risk levels also vary by neighborhood, with less affluent and historically marginalized sectors being the most affected due to the density of the population, limited access to cooling systems, and the limited availability of green urban spaces.

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A New Digital Tool Allows Users to Investigate Spatial Equity across New York City’s Communities

The Transportation Alternatives and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have initiated a new digital tool, Spatial Equity NYC, to help users understand how space is distributed and restricted across the neighborhoods of New York City. The tool asses the use of streets, sidewalks, and public spaces, as they are key factors that influence data such as pollution, traffic fatalities, accessibility, or air quality. The data collected shows a direct correlation between neighborhoods with low-income communities and communities of color and the detrimental ways in which public space is used, leading to health and mobility issues in those communities.

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XZero City is Kuwait’s Proposal for a Self-Sufficient Smart City

Kuwait is planning a 1,600-hectare development that will provide residential units, jobs, and amenities for 100,000 residents. Developed by URB, the ambitious project aims to promote a sustainable lifestyle with high standards of living, yet a low impact on the environment. The masterplan for the smart city is designed to optimize density and amenities distribution to create a walkable city, while also optimizing the green space ratio. This will help mitigate the effects of rising temperatures and the urban heat island effect. The green transportation systems and dedicated cycling tracks will make this a car-free city, apart from a ring road that allows for limited vehicular access. The city also promotes a circular economy that aims to provide food and energy security for the residents.

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Barcelona Prepares Climate Shelters to Keep Residents Cool During the Summer Months

Cities across the Northern Hemisphere are preparing for the upcoming summer months, which are expected to be warmer and drier than average. The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts warns about temperatures rising above the norm in central and southern Europe this summer. Similarly, the forecast for the Unites States predicts hotter weather and below-average rainfall likely to fuel a megadrought. This poses threats for citizens, especially in larger cities, where heat-absorbing asphalt and waste heat generated by energy use create a “heat-island” effect. It translates to temperatures being up to 10°F (5.6°C) warmer in cities compared to the surrounding natural areas.

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Cities are Taking New Measures to Mitigate Heatwaves

Prolonged heatwaves have been increasingly common in recent years, and cities are devising various strategies for combating the urban heat island effect. As Sydney experienced blistering summer temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius, the authorities have recently banned dark roofs on new homes and mandated lighter-coloured alternatives to reflect solar radiation. In Europe, Athens has taken the example of Miami and hired a Chief Heat Officer, tasked with finding coping strategies as the city confronts with heatwaves and wildfires that prompted a large number of residents to vacate the capital.

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Urban Heat Islands Are Increasingly Dangerous, But Planners and Designers Have Solutions

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For this month, The Dirt and author Jared Green share with us a study about urban heat islands, exploring new approaches that have been designed to both reduce urban temperatures and help communities adapt to a hotter world, In three cities: New York City, Copenhagen, and Abu Dhabi.