“Collective Comfort” reimagines cooling centers as dynamic community spaces that move beyond air conditioning to foster collective well-being through enriched architectural programming and opportunistic material thinking.
Liz Gálvez
University of California, Berkeley
College of Environmental Design
Dalia Munenzon
University of Houston
Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture & Design
Two people take refuge from the scorching sun in the shade offered by a streetlight pole. Tall buildings also absorb and amplify the heat of the sun. A view of downtown Phoenix. © Cassidy Araiza.
Jury
Daniel A. Barber
Giovanna Borasi
Iker Gil (Chair)
Mario Gooden
Sarah Herda
Gálvez and Munenzon’s research on cooling centers in the face of increasing heat threats will prove essential to the discipline’s attempts to engage the climate emergency. Their framing of the cooling center as both a place for heat relief and for education promises to bring this spatial and organizational intelligence to a broader public—a project not only conceptually rich but also eminently practical and possible.
Daniel A. Barber, Juror
The Phoenix Metro Area, or The Valley of The Sun as it is known to locals, experienced a record 113 straight days with temperatures over 100˚F (38˚C) in 2024. Extreme heat is not just uncomfortable but increasingly threatening to plant, animal, and human life, especially the most vulnerable populations who may lack reliable access to air conditioning. The city is already experiencing one of the highest rates of heat-related illnesses and deaths. Recognizing the risks that extreme heat poses to human well-being, governments and communities in the Phoenix Metro Area are working to develop cooling centers as a strategy to combat heat insecurity.
Cooling centers typically utilize existing buildings to provide air-conditioned spaces, offering citizens immediate relief from high temperatures. Yet, as an emerging architectural typology, many of these centers lack design direction. They are conceived as emergency buildings often without essential amenities like food, natural daylighting, fresh air, or engaging activities, making it hard for people to imagine spending hours there regardless of how dangerously hot it might be outside. Furthermore, this approach overlooks the broader causes of extreme heat, including the widespread use of heat-retaining materials in the urban environment and reliance on fossil fuels for cooling.
As global temperatures rise, “Collective Comfort” responds to climate challenges with sustainable design concepts that engage both community and environment. The works developed as part of the 2022 Research Prize reimagine cooling centers as dynamic community spaces that move beyond air conditioning to foster collective well-being through enriched architectural programming and opportunistic material thinking. This research was publicized as an exhibition at the Center for Architecture + Design in San Francisco, opening on November 21, 2024. The exhibition highlighted design-research, full-scale prototypes, and student works that address the urgent need for alternative cooling solutions in regions facing extreme heat.
Maricopa County in Arizona, home to Phoenix, seen above, saw 103 days of three-digit temperatures in 2019. © Cassidy Araiza.
The Phoenix metro area, like many desert cities, is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of extreme heat and limited electrical supply. Through the concept of “Collective Comfort,” we aim to rethink the cooling center as an educational resilience hub, providing alternative visions for addressing heat insecurity that prioritize collectivity and community resilience. This award is a tremendous opportunity for us to make a meaningful impact toward addressing equitable cooling in desert cities via the promotion of community resilience. Advancing aspects of climate adaptation is significant to us both as is the opportunity to work together in an interdisciplinary setting. Growing up in the Phoenix Metro area has motivated Gálvez to dedicate her research toward defining post-fossil fuel architectural forms that address comfort in relationship to new forms of collective living. For Munenzon, this project offers the possibility to learn from a community actively dealing with the risk of heat through collaborative methods of observation that promote inclusive dialogues. We are humbled to have the opportunity to support our local partners in this important work and look forward to the impact this project will have on heat-vulnerable communities in quickly warming desert cities and beyond.
Liz Gálvez and Dalia Munenzon
Air conditioners on a residential building roof, Phoenix, AZ. © Liz Gálvez.
This project reframes the architecture of the cooling center from survivability to livability under the concept of “Collective Comfort.” For the past two years, (Im)material Matters Lab director and Assistant Professor of Architecture, Liz Gálvez has been organizing efforts and collaborations for addressing these underlying issues of living in an ever-hotter world. “Collective Comfort” explores the potential for a new, integrated approach to community cooling.
Municipalities often “err on the side of caution,” choosing a safer or more conservative approach in a situation of uncertainty. This involves making decisions or taking actions that prioritize safety or minimize risk to avoid potential negative outcomes. “Collective Comfort” responds to climate challenges within sustainable design by “Airing on Possibilities.” Possibility represents the openness to growth, transformation, and new opportunities. It embodies hope, potential, and the belief that something better or unexpected can emerge. Possibility is the idea that there is room for creativity and positive change—an invitation to envision and work toward something meaningful.
Under this openness to possibility, this exhibit envisions cooling centers not merely as air-conditioned spaces but as hubs of collective comfort that prioritize resilience through social engagement and the power of architecturally significant spaces to instigate collective joy. Drawing inspiration from ancient desert civilizations, where communal interaction and sensory pleasure were crucial, three material prototypes examine how architecture can foster environments that don’t merely cool but actively bring people together to reframe what comfort can be.
“Collective Comfort” aims to advance social infrastructure through thoughtful architecturally rich spaces and harnessing the power of energy-storing materials in our unique, contemporary moment. Re-imagining cooling principles, re-invigorating ancient material thinking, and re-thinking how cooling centers can serve as dynamic spaces of collective resilience, the exhibition highlights design-research, full-scale prototypes, and student work that address the urgent need for alternative cooling solutions in regions facing extreme heat by erring (airing) on the side of possibility.
Principal Investigators
Liz Gálvez, Director, (Im)material Matters Lab, University of California, Berkeley
Dalia Munenzon, Director, The Urban Climate Adaptation Lab, University of Houston
(Im)material Matters Lab
Deniz Atayolu (BA in Architecture), Catherine Chiu (BA in Architecture), Xinhui Harper Dong (MArch), Annette Ho (BA in Architecture), Kyra Johnston (MArch), David Lin (BA in Architecture), Chloe Wang (BA in Architecture), Sarah Zhang (BA in Architecture), and Wenteng Zhao (MArch)
Collaborators
Salmaan Craig (Associate Professor, University of California — Los Angeles), Paul L Mayencourt (Assistant Professor, University of California — Berkeley), and Melissa Guardaro (Assistant Research Professor, Knowledge Exchange for Resilience, Arizona State University).
Seminar Students
Emmanuel Carrillo, Quinton Frederick, Yini Hu, Kyra Johnston, Frederic Lam Yibo Lin, Hannah Macmurty, Elliot Park, David Primuth, Youjia Sun, Jinghao Xiang, Boyu Zhang, and Yuhan Zhang
Architecture Studio Students (MArch)
Xinhui Harper Dong, Kyra Johnston, Bryan Kim, Tin wing Alvina Lee, Monical Leslie, Maria Maddox, Elizabeth Renchin, Mike Ren, Jackie Urwin, Wenjun Wei, Wenteng Zhao , Todd Zhou, and Pinru Zhu
The Urban Climate Adaptation Lab
Dalia Munenzon, Rubaiya Sultana, Marco Chapa, and Gabriel Castaneda
Urban Systems Design Studio Students (MArch/ MSc)
Adeseyoju Adesoji, Andrew Edun Abraham, Cruz Marin Kerstin, Delacerda Nickolas, Elabbasi Mohannad, George Gregory, Kragas Galen, Lorenz Kelson, Rani Vatsala, Segura Nora Denise, Sridharan Anu, Sultana Rubaiya, Upadhyay Komal, Vellanki Tejaswini, and Washington Sharea Marie
Exhibition Collaborators
Bianca Ibarlucea (Graphic Design), Matthew Millman (Photography) and Center for Architecture + Design, San Francisco (Venue)
Collective Comfort: Airing on Possibilities, Center for Architecture + Design, San Francisco, 2024. © Matthew Millman.
Collective Comfort: Airing on Possibilities, Center for Architecture + Design, San Francisco, 2024. © Matthew Millman.
Collective Comfort: Airing on Possibilities, Center for Architecture + Design, San Francisco, 2024. © Matthew Millman.
Collective Comfort: Airing on Possibilities was presented at the Center for Architecture + Design, San Francisco, November 21, 2024–February 6, 2025.
“Collective Comfort” was the recipient of the AIA Upjohn Research Initiative in 2023.
Liz Gálvez
University of California, Berkeley
College of Environmental Design
Dalia Munenzon
University of Houston
Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design
is a registered architect, directs Office e.g. and teaches at the University of California, Berkeley. She received an MArch from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a concentration in history, theory, and criticism of architecture and a bachelor’s degree in architectural and philosophical studies from Arizona State University. She practices between New York City and Michoacán, Mexico. Her work focuses on the interface between architecture, theory, and environmentalism through a reexamination of building technologies. Previously, Gálvez taught at the Yale School of Architecture, the Rice School of Architecture and at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College, where she was the 2018–19 William Muschenheim Fellow. She has practiced at architecture firms in the United States and in Mexico, including Will Bruder Architects and NADAAA. Her writing has been published in Thresholds, Footprint, Pidgin, Plat, Pool, Disc, and others. Her work has been exhibited at the Hohensalzburg Fortress in Austria, the University of Michigan, the Space p11 Gallery in Chicago, the Farish Gallery at Rice University, and at the University of Virginia. She was a 2022 Art Omi fellow and received the 2021 Rice Design Alliance Houston Design Research Grant and the 2016 Seebacher Prize for the Fine Arts. In 2021, she was awarded the Architectural League Prize.
is an assistant professor of urban design at the University of Houston’s Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design, where she focuses on researching and teaching adaptive strategies and resiliency methods for sustainable communities and infrastructure. With a background in urban systems design, environmental planning, and architecture, she works with local communities to create resilient cities and urban environments. Munenzon’s current research explores the use of climate adaptation as a means for transformative actions in the urban realm, including the study of infrastructure systems, codesign of visions, and analysis of regulations and policies required for implementation. She aims to further the discourse on design as a multidisciplinary exchange between communities, cultural practices, regulatory complexity, economy, landscape, and the built environment. Munenzon holds a master’s degree in architecture and urbanism from MIT and a Bachelor in Architecture and Town Planning from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. With over a decade of professional experience in architecture and urbanism, she has contributed to many high-profile, award-winning projects such as the Climate Ready Boston Downtown, East Boston, and Island End River Resilience study.
