The Thermal Star is an urban climatic trial,that it is used as an urban laboratory for a new delimited square in the city of Murcia. This climatic trial makes it possible to put an appearance to the so-called ‘heat island effect’ suffered by many urban centres.
The project seeks the enjoyment of public space through this ‘urban acupuncture’ architecture within the project ‘AND Urbano’ leaded by Murcia City Council, finding the opportunity to accomplish it at this ramshackle crossroads. Therefore, a new seasonal space is proposed, one for the summer and another for the winter, a new climatic plaza for neighbourhood enjoyment.
In the design strategy, sunlight is prioritized for each season and the white summer pavement is intentionally designed because it repels solar radiation, making it cooler in the South zone of the new square, and facing in the opposite zone is located the warmer part of the square, paint with black pavement in order that the black surface absorbs more solar radiation.
These two summer and winter spaces are framed with a ‘thermochromic’ paint star shape, a star linked to the aesthetics of Pop Art by Roy Lichtenstein or Takashi Murakami. The techno-scientific objective of this Thermal Star is that it beacons and reinforces this heat effect, since this painting disappears after 26º, that is, when humans begin to perceive heat, it becomes transparent, lightening the dark areas to reduce solar incidence , with which the Thermal Star makes clear and shows the aspect that the temperature can have and Thermal Star also shows its importance in urban design.
Numerous studies show that changing the colour of horizontal urban surfaces can reduce up to 50% of the heat in the city and as a consequence the 'heat islandeffect’, which is why this Climate Plaza brings citizens closer to the state of emergency climate in which we are immersed and allows us to enjoy it differently in its two extreme states.
