Comfort Zone

A technological shading and cooling structure for transportation services.

The Sky Harbor International Airport Outer Curb Comfort Zoine is a demonstration project synthesizing pedestrian amenities such as shading, cooling, lighting, and comfort into a new infrastructure promoting sustainability and safety. The Comfort Zone is a one thousand-foot-long structure that employs alternative materials and technologies such as crumb-rubber concrete, liquid-dipped powder-coated perforated metal, and high-performance evaporative coolers. The project's purpose is to shade and cool travelers waiting for transit, provide accessibility, illuminate way-finding, protect against automobile traffic, and reduce the heat island effect. The structure is an integrated modular prototype that can be easily deployed into other areas of the Airport, such as terminals, bust stops, and long-term parking areas. The physical form of the project is a synthesis of solar orientation (folded metal skin angled toward the sun to facilitate solar panels) and desert colors and textures (agave green street lights, sand-colored scale-like screens, reflective yellow “needle” fasteners).

Outer-curb Transportation Infrastructure

Terminal 2, Sky Harbor International Airport, Arizona

1000 ft long

Photography

Architecture - Infrastructure - Research Inc.

Collaborator

The Design School, Arizona State University