NEW article on thermal practices to cope with summer heat in Chongqing by Madlen Kobi

Until the 1990s and the spread of air-conditioning, cooling down during the hot, humid, and windless summers in the city of Chongqing (Southwest China) was mainly practiced outdoors: sleeping on the rooftops of multistorey buildings, playing mah-jongg in the streets, fanning oneself with a hand fan or installing bamboo beds in the compounds’ leafy courtyards. With the availability of affordable electricity and the popularisation of mechanical cooling, refreshing oneself has been relocated to the indoors. The article engages with the ways in which individual cooling practices and devices are intertwined with the architectural history of the city, for example, building design, construction materials, green spaces, or the arrangement of houses.

Madlen Kobi. 2023. „Urban Energy Landscape in Practice: Architecture, Infrastructure and the Material Culture of Cooling in Post-reform Chongqing, China.” Urban Studies. doi: 10.1177/00420980231153309.