After successful installments in Venice in 2023 and New York City in 2024, The Cooling Solution lands in London in September 2024 at the Italian Cultural Institute. A photographic and scientific project, resulting from a collaboration between CMCC and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, it showcases global resilience to climate challenges and how different communities adapt to high heat and humidity in countries most affected by climate change.

The Cooling Solution is a scientific project that uses photography to investigate how people of different socioeconomic backgrounds around the world adapt to high temperatures and humidity in the context of climate change. Beginning with the title, the term solution is meant to call into question this adaptation paradigm. The project examines the phenomenon of the rising AC demand in its various facets, addressing its numerous shortcomings and drawbacks, as well as the reasons for its use, which are often related to the necessity of protecting the most fragile members of society from health hazards. According to the report of the International Energy Agency, “The Future of Cooling”, published in 2018, 10 new AC units will be sold every second for the next 30 years, bringing the number of installed cooling units worldwide to 5.6 billion by 2050.

The project combines scientific research, photography and infographics to investigate people’s experiences as they deal with thermal discomfort in Brazil, India, Indonesia, and Italy. The goal is to use photography’s communicative power to make academic knowledge accessible to the wider public.

As AC becomes cheaper and more efficient, it may end up being used in places where heat stress could instead be adequately tackled by alternative cooling solutions. As a result, humanity is facing the risk of being trapped in a new, vicious cycle created by consolidated behaviors and urban environments shaped by the ubiquity of AC. It is now clear that the era of energy-intensive material comfort must come to an end. What is perhaps less clear is that sacrificing this way of living doesn’t mean sacrificing thermal comfort, a concept whose parameters are determined not only by climate, but also by habits, culture, and socio-economic dynamics.

In the frame of a broader scientific research, Brazil, India and Indonesia were chosen to represent populous, tropical countries whose economies are growing, while Italy serves as a western counterpart. While these countries, however different, are following a similar trend driving them towards a homogenized notion of thermal comfort, The Cooling Solution also examines vernacular architecture, alternative cooling methods, innovation, and dedicated research efforts. We will live on a warmer planet, and AC can and will save lives. However, there is also a great richness in the diversity of cooling methods available that are waiting to be re-discovered, re-visited, and scaled-up.

The Cooling Solution features photography by Gaia Squarci, research by the ENERGYA team led by prof. Enrica De Cian at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and Fondazione CMCC. The exhibition is curated by Kublaiklan and coordinated by element6.eu.

LOCATIONS

The Cooling Solution has been hosted at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, May-July 2023,  and in New York City at the Photoville Festival,  1-16 June 2024.

In the second half of 2024, The Cooling Solution will be hosted at The Italian Cultural Institute in London, from September 2 to October 2, 2024 (with a vernissage on September 9, 2024) and at the Radar Festival of Photography in Trani from October 4 to November 30, 2024.

SPONSORS

The project has been supported by the European Research Council (ERC) and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, the Department of Economics at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Fondazione CMCC, and THE NEW INSTITUTE Centre for Environmental Humanities.

The London edition of The Cooling Solution is supported by the The Italian Cultural Institute of London, the Department of Economics at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Fondazione CMCC, and THE NEW INSTITUTE Centre for Environmental Humanities.

WEBSITE AND CATALOG

The content of the project Cooling Solution is available in an extended version at thecoolingsolution.com, a custom website launched on May 19, 2023.

TEAM

The exhibition and catalog, coordinated by element6.eu and curated by the collective Kublaiklan, would not have been possible without the economic research led by Enrica De Cian and her ENERGYA team, the ethnographic research conducted by Antonella Mazzone, the policy research carried out by Marinella Davide, and the photography by Gaia Squarci.