2° 2m [two degrees, two meters]

Microclimate most drastically affects conditions in cities, the places where society, economy and environment converge and where walkability, comfort and health are the most substantial indicators for the quality of the public realm. Citizens are exposed to the consequences of discomfort in urban space, resulting in a high amount of challenges for the city dwellers and having severe impacts on the everyday life and well-being of hundreds of millions of people around the globe, with different impacts from place to place.
Because of its material diversity and complex morphology, urban space is characterized by varied microclimates across very small spatial and temporal scales that elicit fluctuating thermal experiences for pedestrians.

2° 2m is our answer to the Biennale’s overriding question: “How will we live together?” addressed by Hashim Sarkis, the curator of The Venice Architecture Biennale 2021.
Inspired by this crucial question, we contribute to the Italian Pavilion “Resilient Communities” with a documentary, a data-driven investigation to focus on the significance of the environmental quality of public space, interpreted as the fundamental physical domain for living together. In the context of a severe unprecedented climate crisis with far-reaching effects on millions of people around the world, we use the threshold defined by the Paris Agreement of keeping a global temperature rise of this century well below 2° C above pre-industrial levels, using the 2 meters’ measure to raise awareness on the influence of design and materiality on environmental conditions in urban space. In particular, Venice, as a role model for the resilience of public space, underlines the relevance of the daily dose of 2° C temperature increase between 2 m layer of air, as an exposure index in everyday urbanism.

Credits:
Thomas Auer  (TUM, Transsolar)
Ata Chokhachian  (TUM, Climateflux)
Daniele Santucci  (Climateflux)

Special Thanks to
Sergio Pascolo (Sergio Pascolo Architects) , Venice