In all near term future scenarios, the city of Athens is facing existential environmental threats from heat and pollution. The ‘eco-mental system’ called Athena – to borrow a cybernetic concept from the ecological anthropologist Gregory Bateson – is changing. This ongoing research project explores the potential for zero energy, water-based downdraft evaporative cooling installations, to engage in ecological dialogues with these changes, as experimental urban air conditioning ‘collective equipment’.

By re-imagining ancient and vernacular natural cooling techniques from cultures around the planet, as well as more recent research, since the summer 2024 we have tested a multiple iterations of temporary seven meter high fabric evaporative cooling structures at the Latraac urban garden in Athens, producing 10 degree Celcius temperature drops (from 35C to 25C) within 15 min using zero electricity.

Over the coming summers we will continue and expand these tests, and experiment with towers ranging from five to thirty meters in height, at various other partner sites in Athens. The taller towers have the potential to not only cool significant quantities of air, but to also draw down to street level, cleaner air from above the worst pollution layers, which are often held close to ground level by the temperature inversion phenomena caused by the geomorphology of the Athenean basin.

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The research team is led by Dr Jon Goodbun (Rheomode Athens, and Royal College of Art London), with Aran Chadwick (partner Atelier One engineers), Dr Rosa Schiano-Phan and Dr Juan Vallejo (University of Westminster), Flora McLean (RCA Fashion) and Dimitra Vlami (Rheomode Athens) and brings together artists, film makers and various local allies (including the Municipality of Athens and UN Habitat). This action research project aims to initiate a wave of evaporative cooling experiments in cities like Athens, by producing a kit of parts and creative commons documentation for how to build and test evaporative cooling structures, whilst engaging Athena with a series of citizen science which explore the possible social forms these ‘gentle’ and ‘democratic’ geoengineering possibilities.