Datir Anuja Ashok

LA4022

In Between the Layers is a project that responds to the growing challenge of rising urban temperatures and the need for more thermally comfortable public spaces. As cities continue to face the impact of the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, there is a pressing need to rethink how everyday open spaces can adapt to extreme heat conditions. While this project focuses on a single neighborhood park, it contributes to a larger vision—where a network of climate-responsive parks across the city can work collectively to address the Urban Heat Island effect. Each park becomes a part of a broader system, offering localized cooling and environmental relief that, together, build toward city-wide thermal resilience. This project explores how different environmental and spatial layers—such as shade, vegetation, airflow, moisture, and materiality—can come together to create more breathable, resilient, and comfortable urban environments. It aims to uncover how layered strategies, when thoughtfully integrated, can turn ordinary neighborhood spaces into places of relief, rest, and resilience in the face of climate stress.