Photo by Marcin Gierbisz from Pexels

This July, Paris recorded an all-time high temperature of 42.6 degrees Celsius (108.7 Fahrenheit). 

The Parisian authorities quickly introduced measures to cool people down, including an app to point people towards 922 “Urban Islands of Coolness.” The measures included the installation of misting machines, water fountains, late night opening of parks and pools and the mapping of cultural spaces. Through absolute necessity, a whole new network of public spaces has been created, adapted or highlighted in the city via new technologies in reaction to soaring temperatures. 

Let's explore some of those approaches. 

On July 26 2019, Paris surpassed all previous heat records and reached an ambient temperature of 108.7-degrees Fahrenheit, a phenomenon that caused the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, to announce a heat emergency. The problem with Paris and other major European cities experiencing extreme heat is that air conditioning is simply not the norm there and cities as old as Paris were not built to adapt to rising temperatures. In Paris, even public transport can be stifling, as only 35-percent of metro cars have air conditioning. The rising temperatures in Europe require urgent responses from built environment professionals and the government. Let’s take a look at how the Parisian authorities have adapted, created, and activated networks of public space to attempt to tackle the threat of deadly heatwaves. 

Parisians in search of salvation from the heat can download the free Extrema Paris app, which uses GPS and is updated in real time, to find themselves an “Urban Island of Coolness.” The government describes the app: “Parisians can look for cool spots on the Extrema Paris app. It lists the 922 islands of coolness in Paris, whether they are permanent (gardens, municipal equipment etc.) or temporary (water misters, exceptional openings of parks etc.) [cooling stations].” The app can point the user to these publicly accessible spaces, notifying them when they are at risk of too much heat exposure. They can also set up profiles for family members to check their risk in real time. Upon its launch, it was the most downloaded app in Paris for over a week.

Outdoor facilities listed on the app include water misters, fountains, drinking water fountains, and open-air pools. The app works both for day and night spaces; At night, the app directs the user to late-opening parks and water fountains. A common image circulating around the world attached to the news of France’s heatwave this summer was one of crowds languidly bathing in the Trocadero fountains beneath the Eiffel Tower. These pictures were often used because the image of city-dwellers en masse removing their shoes and bathing in such a formal civic setting almost seems subversive. However, the fountains are in fact listed on the Extrema Paris app, so this was mayor-sanctioned paddling. Such images show people abandoning inhibitions—and hopefully their cell phones—on dry land, reclaiming the fountains from their decorative use.  

In Paris, even public transport can be stifling, as only 35-percent of metro cars have air conditioning. The rising temperatures in Europe require urgent responses from built environment professionals and the government. 

From Swimming to Sparkling Water

New public spaces have also created by adapting existing ones, including moves by the city authorities permitting free swimming in the canal at La Villette and officials setting up three other temporary outdoor pools in the city. Unfortunately for Parisians, La Villette is often reported as being at over-capacity. As a result of this demand, there have been talks of opening up the iconic Seine for swimming by 2024. Boats full of tourists gawping at Paris’s urban patisserie of buildings, statues, and monuments may soon share the murky waters with speedo-clad Parisians. The emergency heat plan released in July 2019 details that in addition to the 1200 drinking fountains already existing in the city, 48 water misters and 35 prototypes combining drinking fountains and water misters temporarily connected to fire hydrants were also deployed. I spoke to Paris resident and urban designer Danielle Devoglio about her experience of the Extrema Paris app, she stated that “the open air pool at La Villette was always too crowded, but I used the indoor pools with late opening hours. The temporary misters along the river banks and in some squares were good additions.” A success story of sorts, she downloaded and used to app to access some of the temporary public realm measures and made use of civic buildings with late opening hours. However, she reiterated the high demand for more swimming to be allowed in open air pools.

In terms of cooling infrastructure, one of the more unusual Parisian features is the presence of sparkling water fountains. These Fontaine Pétillante are free and add CO2 to the water via a mechanism at the drinking fountain itself. These fountains are an example of Parisian public realm design that goes beyond mere necessity and adds a little bit of civic je ne sais quoi. 

Comprehensive Mapping of Cultural Spaces

The Extrema Paris app also points people towards air conditioned or cavernous stone buildings, there are categories for libraries, museums, and places of worship such as churches or synagogues. Steering people towards these chilly cultural institutions is clearly born from necessity, but it does seem very chic to escape from the heat by being directed to a picturesque edifice such as the Eglise Saint-Louis des Invalides or to the Petit Palais. Both are examples of free-to-access spaces, but the app does list paying museums such as Musée du Louvre or Musée Rodin, resulting in a comprehensive mapping of Paris’s cultural capital. In a very French fashion, the Extrema Paris app is not just for finding public spaces with cooling facilities, it has also become a tool which beckons clammy bodies to Paris’s grand and temperate cultural spaces.

Paris’s Commitment to Green Technologies

Paris has also been proactive in using new technologies and policies to tackle climate change. The city has a comprehensive network of over 800 electric car chargers, and the authorities paired with industry in 2011 to launch electric car sharing, which was far ahead of its European counterparts and the rest of the world. In a controversial move, diesel cars made before 2006 were banned in the center during weekdays this year, which is part of a bigger scheme to go fully electric; France announced a ban on the sale of internal combustion engines by 2040 in 2017. In addition, the city provides subsidies for electric modes of transport, with €5000 and free parking offered to anyone who purchases an electric vehicle. Service vehicles have also gone green, with ongoing trials of electric police cars, UPS bikes, and taxis currently underway. This has introduced a new streetscape to the city, as the sight of electric charging infrastructure has now become imbedded within the city’s urban landscape. App-operated Electric scooters have also become ubiquitous on the streets, with 12 operators in the capital, a greater number than the US as a whole. Emergencies like July’s heatwave will only continue to bring the seriousness of soaring temperatures to the forefront of Parisian minds, so it would be logical to assume that the city will continue to implement green technology policies and planning.

With cities only expected to experience these temperature extremes more often, emergency plans like Paris’s 922 “Urban Islands of Coolness” are essential public space adaptations and should form part of a global movement toward a new kind of  social and technological climate adaptability infrastructure. While there is still a long way to go, the Paris model demonstrates how the public realm improvements, when combined intelligently and strategically with technology, can be used to begin to tackle the dangers of extreme heat. Perhaps other cities could learn from Paris, because as the world gets hotter each summer, we may all soon find ourselves wading into our grand civic fountains.