City Selects Design Team for New Cool Spots Shade Structures Planned for Summer 2027


9/18/2026

View from below an energy carousel looking towards the sky

Cool Spots, the Participatory Budgeting project from the City of Cambridge that provides shaded gather spaces to various neighborhoods, will introduce new installations next year. The City has selected international urban design and architecture studio Ecosistema Urbano to design temporary shade structures that will help people stay cool during hot weather and create welcoming places for community gathering. These structures will be designed in 2026 with projected installation in Summer 2027.

Ecosistema Urbano has more than 25 years of experience designing for climatic comfort in cities and creating climate-responsive public spaces. With projects across Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the US, the studio combines environmental design with participatory processes to create places that respond to local ecosystems, civic aspirations, and the unequal impacts of climate change. Its work explores how design can create more comfortable, accessible, and resilient public spaces, particularly in communities most affected by heat and environmental inequity. Recent works include Plantable, a temporary public space intervention in Boston’s Chinatown (summer 2025), and Polinature, a climate-responsive urban installation at Harvard University campus (summer 2024).

Ecosistema Urbano was chosen through a competitive process launched in June 2026 that invited artists, designers, and interdisciplinary teams to apply to a call for designers. The City received 44 applications and five finalists were interviewed by a panel of City staff, industry professionals, and community members before a selected team was made in September 2026. Ecosistema Urbano will receive a budget of $80,000-$95,000, inclusive of all costs from design through final installation.

Installations are in the early stages of planning for installation aimed at early summer 2027. Design firm Architecture for Public Benefit, also selected through the competitive process, will develop an installation for summer 2028 and will commence their planning process next year.

"Just like COVID-19, extreme heat affects some of us much more than others,” said Julie Wormser, Cambridge’s Chief Climate Officer. “Cool Spots means that every resident will have access to comfortable, shady, neighborly places to gather during the hottest months. I am very much looking forward to seeing what Ecosistema Urbano will do to help Cambridge be a more beautiful, resilient, equitable community."

Cool Spots is a multi‑department City of Cambridge initiative focused on addressing the impacts of extreme heat, which vary across Cambridge neighborhoods. The project aims to provide replicable or site-specific interventions that are cool, comfortable, and community‑centered, providing both shade and reasons for people to come together. Ranging from chairs in shaded areas like parks, to seating along busy streets, Cool Spots are public spaces where community members are encouraged to gather, connect, and cool off. In the initial rounds of implementation, pilot locations for Cool Spots were launched across the City in and around Sennott Park, Greene-Rose Heritage Park, Cambridge Common, Donnelly Field and around Porter Square.

Ecosistema Urbano will work with City staff and community members to choose specific sites and develop detailed designs for one or more Cool Spots installations. Design work will continue through Fall and Winter 2026. Fabrication and installation are planned for Spring–Summer 2027.

The Cool Spots project is funded through the 10th cycle of Cambridge’s Participatory Budgeting (PB), which has invested more than $11 million in over 80 community-developed projects since 2014.

As this PB-funded project moves into its design phase, the City is also inviting the Cambridge community to submit ideas for the 13th cycle of Participatory Budgeting. Community members are encouraged to propose ideas that improve the City to potentially be implemented – just as Cool Spots originated from community ideas. Ideas can be submitted at pb.cambridgema.gov. The deadline to submit ideas is October 11, 2026.

 

Heat in Cambridge

Cool Spots builds on Cambridge’s efforts to address extreme heat, including Shade is Social Justice, green building standards, green roofs, expanded urban forestry, public health programming, and much more. Staying cool and connected - indoors and outdoors – remains a growing City priority for climate resilience. More information is available at https://www.cambridgema.gov/heat.

 

Questions

Questions about the project can be directed to Drew Kane, Senior City Planner, Community Planning and Design Division, at dkane@cambridgema.gov.

Questions about Participatory Budgeting can be directed to the Budget Office at pb@cambridgema.gov.

Pictured:

This "energy carousel" is one of the many projects developed and installed by Ecosistema Urbano.