This newly selected Brazilian pilot connects public-space design, urban climate data and public health. Its potential to establish replicable design criteria for parks, schools, plazas and sports facilities makes it more consequential than a standalone cooling intervention.
Parque Benemérito José Brás, central São Paulo, Brazil
About this story
São Paulo’s municipal environment department selected Parque Benemérito José Brás as the first pilot site for a proposed network of public thermal-comfort spaces. The SampaAdapta initiative is developing criteria through which parks, plazas, schools and sports facilities could protect residents during periods of extreme heat. The work combines community knowledge with microclimate, housing and health evidence, including data from 25 temperature-and-humidity sensors across five city regions. The park will test how those findings can be converted into viable spatial interventions and evaluation criteria that could subsequently guide a citywide network.
Status and timeline
Pilot site announced September 17, 2026. The municipal environment department will now consolidate workshop findings, develop implementation proposals and create indicators for evaluating the pilot. No installation date has been published.
Design highlights
Heat adaptation as a distributed public-space network; integration of vegetation, microclimate, built form and patterns of use; evidence-based co-design; public facilities functioning as protective infrastructure during extreme heat.
