Events

Urban Climate Walk

Partner Event to be held on 03 August 2021, 14:00
Meet by the Martha Smith Memorial Fountain, Finsbury Square

As part of an ongoing research project concerned with built form, microclimates, and critical urban infrastructure, Julie Futcher runs an urban climate walk through the City of London. The walk presents a unique view of the city through the role of its buildings in creating distinct microclimates and offers a novel perspective on the city’s dramatic and changing skyline.

The theme linking the stops along this walk is energy, both in its natural expression (temperature/wind/sunshine) and in the needs of buildings (cooling/heating loads), and how these are interdependent at the scale of the city street.

Throughout the walk we experience the direct and dynamic influence of built form on the background climate, demonstrating the far-reaching effects of increasing urban density on access to passive resources like daylight and ventilation, and in turn the influence of these effects on thermal comfort, health, and wellbeing, key components of urban resilience.

The walk generates conversation around the direct links between architecture, planning, climate, green infrastructure, and health and wellbeing, and clarifies the spatial and temporal characteristics of the various urban climate effects, including the different types of urban heat islands, often misrepresented in non-urban climate literature.

Contact Julie to find out more, or just turn up!