Heat in urban Asia

In April 2021, the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Cluster in the Asia Research Institute (ARI) at National University of Singapore (NUS) hosted the workshop HEAT IN URBAN ASIA: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. On that occasion, Cool Infrastructures researcher Soha Macktoom presented a paper titled ‘Negotiating Shade in Changing Urban Climates in South Asia,’ co-authored by Nausheen Anwar and Jamie Cross. The paper contributes to the discourse around shade as an inalienable right, but further explores its intersections with embedded solarities and the need to see heat and shade as relational but not mutually exclusive in cities of the Global South.

On the same occasion, researcher Adam Abdullah presented a paper titled ‘Heat in a time of Corona: an analysis of the nexus of thermal practices and virus transmission management in three cities’, authored together with Elspeth Opperman, Anindriya Nastiti, and others. The paper explores the compounding effect of urban heat and mandatory confinement measures during the 2020 Covid lockdown in these cities, and how the residents used available materials and technologies to mitigate the effect of thermally uncomfortable indoor environments.