Reclaiming Shade: Heat-Resilient Design and the Built Environment

As temperatures climb and climate extremes become a lived reality, the urgency to design for heat resilience has never felt more immediate. This session asks us to reconsider shade, not as an aesthetic afterthought, but as a fundamental act of care. “Reclaiming Shade” invites us into a conversation about cooling as a right, especially in regions most vulnerable to the impacts of rising heat. Drawing from deeply contextual case studies like The Jaisalmer School and the JSW Arts Centre, this presentation explores passive cooling strategies that prioritise comfort, dignity, and environmental responsiveness without the burden of high energy costs. Through architectural forms that channel breeze, materials that resist heat, and spatial planning that embraces ventilation and shadow, the session reframes resilience as something that begins with design. It is about building smarter, with less, and returning to intuitive, time-tested ways of creating thermal comfort. In reclaiming shade, we reclaim our cities, our comfort, and our right to live well, even as the world gets warmer.