An indicative portfolio of cooling interventions
Rather than discrete projects, Madrid 2050° is constructing a living portfolio of interdependent interventions: a stack of measures spanning the physical fabric of the city down to the capital architecture that funds its adaptation and resilience.
The indicative portfolio has been structured to be both compositional – interventions across scales interact, complement, hedge and multi-solve – and function as a convening platform, bringing together multiple actors around a shared challenge. Designed to evolve as the initiative matures and to be refined through demonstrators: where pilot interventions bring shared clarity to both the problem and solution space.
Multiscalar
Heat is experienced in a room and governed across a region – the portfolio is composed across four scales to systemically address heat-related risks.
where heat is endured
Buildings & homes
Improving the spaces where people live, work, learn and play – prioritising spaces where the most vulnerable remain exposed.
- Cool roofs and reflective films
- External shutters and solar shading
- Retrofit standards for overheating
- Designated cool rooms in homes, schools and care settings
Layers
The portfolio is constructed from six layers, creating a field of systemic responses that must be proportionate to the dynamic and compounding risks Madrid faces.
Material
Physical interventions across buildings, urban spaces, tree canopies and infrastructure.
Biophysical
Living systems: urban forestry, green facades, rain gardens and earth-coupled cooling.
Regulatory
Building codes, standards, activation thresholds and maintenance requirements.
Financial
Financial instruments, including bonds, outcome contracts, contingency funds and parametric products.
Governance
Institutional roles and coordination mechanisms, including cross-agency command structures, accountability frameworks and building-level continuity protocols.
Information & Sensing
Data collection, sense-making, knowledge-building and behaviour-change measures, including public guidance, training programmes, citizen science and early-warning monitoring.
Three maturity horizons
Horizon 1
Available now
Proven in other cities and deployable with what Madrid already has.
Horizon 2
Emerging
Demonstrated at small scale, needs adaptation, regulation or finance to scale.
Horizon 3
Frontier
Still in research or early pilots, included because a portfolio aimed at 2050 cannot be made only of what already works.
Note: the portfolio is a deliberately provisional and living field of responses, rather than a specification or commitment.
Demonstrators
Constructing intervention bundles
No single intervention changes the outcome. These four examples show how a bundle is composed: several types, several scales, and someone accountable for the upkeep.
Schools
A school that doesn't shut in June
Keeping classrooms usable through a heatwave requires fabric upgrades, heat protocols, financing mechanisms and clear governance structures for when to trigger the response.
- Material: Designated cool room inside the schoolBuilding
- Material: OASIS schoolyards, shade, permeable ground and vegetationNeighbourhood
- Material: Cool route linking school, health centre and parkNeighbourhood
- Regulatory: Heat-health protocol for education settingsBuilding
- Financial: Grants or concessional finance for roof and insulation upgradesBuilding
- Governance: Heat office setting the activation thresholdCity
The full xCO portfolio engineering tool is not public yet. If you work at any of these scales and want to see it, get in touch.
