Cooling Bench

We started out our project with a lot of brainstorming and research into the ways that both humans and animals regulate their body temperatures. With rising heat temperatures due to climate change and global warming we sought a solution that would help groups that are adversely affected by these changing temperatures such as individuals with housing insecurities, stray animals and people with disabilities. Our solution was a bench that has ventilation through the seat and fans that take cold air in from the surrounding area, blowing it through the holes on the seat. In addition, the slide on the bottom regulates air flow onto your legs below and a retractable pergola that shades your upper body. During the discussion phase of our project, we created both prototype drawings and CAD models.

We then created a prototype of the bench using scrap wood and the materials provided to us in the makerspace woodworks lab.

In order to implement this project into the real world we would replace all existing benches with our improved cooling bench. Replacing these benches, however, would require government funding, city works projects or nonprofit work to make it a reality.