From mobile jungles to shadow art: how Dutch people try to beat the heat

Researchers in Utrecht working next to a pergola covered with greenery. Photograph: Elzemieke Brouwer View image in fullscreen Researchers in Utrecht working next to a pergola covered with greenery. Photograph: Elzemieke Brouwer From mobile jungles to shadow art: how Dutch people try to beat the heat A national heatwave plan has been activated to help people stay cool during the Netherlands’ increasingly hot summers H ouseholds in Amsterdam are being urged to hang their curtains outside their windows as health experts recommend simple hacks to moderate the heatwave rolling across the Netherlands , where homes were built for old-fashioned damp and coldish northern European weather. In a viral social media post last week, Eline Coolen, the heat coordinator at the city’s public health institute, urged sweaty city-dwellers to rig up temporary curtain rails or drape curtains or sheets outside to stop the sun’s rays reaching their large windows. The government, meanwhile, has activated a national heatwave plan , with advice on caring for elderly and vulnerable people, and researchers are trialling everything from fake trees to shadow art to cool down pavements and pedestrians. “In Dutch houses, but also in many houses in northern Europe , you have very big windows,” said Coolen. “We have always built for the winter, when you want as much sun and warmth in your house as possible. “But every year in Amsterdam alone, 110 people die because of the heat – and that could rise to as many as 600 in the future without serious measures.” View image in fullscreen People seek out shade in the garden of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Photograph: ANP/Shutterstock Inspired by the sheets that appear draped over windows in Amsterdam-Noord, where she lives, and a recent trip to Barcelona where people mounted blinds on their balconies, she urged people online to make DIY adjustments – because if you can stop the sun touching your windows, there will be less heat transfer into your house. It’s a matter of physics, according to Bert Blocken, a professor of mechanical engineering at Heriot-Watt University, who believes in alternatives to energy-guzzling air conditioning. “Most of the time we spend indoors, even on very beautiful, sunny days, because we’re working or we’re sleeping, when we also recover from heatwaves,” he said. “We need to keep our buildings cool, ideally without active cooling devices. The climate adaptation of individual buildings is important but still today, many are built with large, glazed facades that generate a lot of heat.” View image in fullscreen People cool off in the water in Amsterdam’s city centre. Photograph: ANP/Shutterstock A huge body of research showed the best way to keep a building cool was simply to keep out the sun, he said. If architects considered a textile striped canopy ugly, there were modern, retractable outdoor blinds. “The ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans did this tens of centuries ago, but sometimes we’re very good at for