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5 Oct, 14 tweets, 5 min read
Thread of threads on how to reduce the urban heat island effect. #1: Plant more street trees to reduce heat accumulation in streets and buildings.
#2: Allow where suitable natural climbing vines and vegetation to help shield buildings, keeping them cooler, reducing the need for air conditioning.
#3: All this street vegetation and the many trees will require a lot of water. To help, make all buildings water independent by encouraging rainwater harvesting. The goal should be to cover 100% of domestic use.
#4: Limit as far as possible urban sprawl by keeping cities dense. More sprawl means more paving and more buildings which leads to more heat buildup.
#5 A good tram system can do wonders in keeping sprawl and parking lots to a minimum, and the rail system can be so green as to be mistaken for a park. This helps a lot.
#6: Build streets that fit the climate. Narrower streets and taller buildings keeps the sun out in hot climates. Align streets to not catch sun during hottest hours. If prevailing winds: align streets to catch a breeze.
#7: Use low-tech methods like awnings wide enough to cover the entire street during summers.
#8: Consider de-paving as many streets as possible, replace with grass or just dirt: both holds more water and accumulates far less heat than concrete or asphalt.
#9: Build cities for pedestrians and not cars. Watch the heat island effect more or less disappear completely.
#10: Consider transforming streets to canals. The canals will increase airflow, reduce heat accumulation and present a simple way of flushing out accumulated heat during daytime for cooler evenings.
#11: Stop cutting lawns.
#12: Keep track of the latest tools and methods in measuring and forecasting the effects of different interventions. This can save a lot of time and money in large mature cities especially.
#13: When you run out of interventions and still suffer from heat islands, consider espaliered urban orchards to make the best of it.
#14: Fine tune the airflow in existing buildings by modifying windows and interior transom windows to catch and steer winds. Natural ventilation is free, healthy, runs off-grid and will save lives in case of summer black outs. It is cheap to build too.

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More from @wrathofgnon

Wrath Of Gnon Profile picture
4 Oct
At its time the Indus Valley Civilization city of Dholavira, founded in 3000 B.C. might have been the most technically advanced city in the entire world. Here as it might have looked around 2100 B.C. With a population of 15,000-20,000 at 0.6km² a density similar to Manhattan.
Located on the island of Khadir in the great salt desert of the Kutch, just on the edge of the monsoon region, meaning that its ground water was salty or brackish, and the monsoon rains often failed: it could go several years without a drop of rain. But the city had ample water!
One third of the city was devoted to water management: huge reservoirs cut deep into the rock was used to store fresh water from two rivers that only came to life during monsoons. These reservoirs linked to wells, silting tanks, etc. offering better water than many modern cities.
Read 7 tweets
Wrath Of Gnon Profile picture
29 Sep
Why did Khmer and Mesoamerican cities collapse between 900-1500 while more rural surroundings survived unharmed? The common theme seems to be a long term investment in soil and water management resources. Meanwhile, us moderns are doing nothing of this. sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/n…
Link to study: pnas.org/content/118/40…
The ancient cities that survived for more than half a millennia all had two things in common: they took relatively good care of their surrounding forests and soils and they did not hesitate to pour any amount of resources, land, effort, labor into securing good and healthy water.
Read 4 tweets
Wrath Of Gnon Profile picture
26 Sep
The (by now) legendary S:t Eriks neighborhood in Stockholm. Built 1995-1998 on 0.06km² with 770 apartments, parks, public places, giving it a population density far higher than modern Manhattan. The whole area was uniformly built in the hugely popular 1920s "Swedish Grace" style.
The area used to be the site of a large hospital, and some buildings were kept, some moved, like the handsome chapel building of the former hospital which now serves as a neighborhood church.
Most buildings follow the successful 5-7 stories of human scaled urbanism but there's two towers that form a portal leading into the neighborhood from a charming park area by the "Orphanage Bay" (named after the orphanage of the old hospital).
Read 4 tweets
Wrath Of Gnon Profile picture
23 Sep
Foraging trip today. Great work for children. Here's five minutes of Juglans ailantifolia, Japanese Walnut (lit. demon walnut, onigurumi, on account of its devilishly hard shell). In most of them the husk had completely rotted away saving us much labor. Image
Another bonus of waiting until the husk has rotted away is that you let squirrels have the first pick (they tens to go for the smaller ones you don't want anyway with a thinner shell). Here are empty walnut shells discarded underneath a tree with a squirrel nest. Squirrel tracks! Image
Here's a large stand of egoma (Perilla frutescens, or Korean perilla). The leaves are great in salads, as garnish or as tempura or in sauces. A couple of weeks more and they'll be seeding: makes for good lamp oil! All indoor lighting in Japan used to be egoma oil until 19th c. Image
Read 7 tweets
Wrath Of Gnon Profile picture
18 Sep
Instead of spending your home improvement money on a silly wood deck, consider fixing your chimney and making sure your wood stove works while there still is time. ft.com/content/7c31ca…
If you can't make a fire at home, consider buying a large box of tea lights. They're not much more expensive than electric heaters and surprisingly good in a pinch.
A hanten is good for working at home in 5-15°C (41-59F), or in Europe, a comfy sweater will save you tons of money come winter.
Read 4 tweets
Wrath Of Gnon Profile picture
17 Sep
Know your bricks. The vertical thickness of a brick wall is measured in wythes. Almost everything gets better with a thicker wall: sound and heat insulation, thermal mass, longevity, etc. Say the words "triple wythe" to a trad architect or a mason and check out the goosebumps.
A single wythe wall can have a structural purpose as well as acting as a wall. However, a single wythe wall that does not have any structural purpose is called a veneer. Two single wythe walls with a cavity in between are called a double brick wall or a cavity wall, as below:
As thicker walls are stronger (and heavier), it is common to reduce the number of wythes the further up you go. This ex-bank and office, now museum, in Tokyo was built in 2004 with an average of six wythes between all floors and the basement. It will be around for awhile.
Read 5 tweets

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