Design Indaba | 06.11.2026 11:29
Landscape architecture practice SWA are designing toolkits of for more walkable cities. By rethinking the pedestrian experience as ‘Cool & Connected Corridors’, the practice have developed modular streetscape interventions that bring cooling infrastructure, planting and public lighting into urban spaces. Their Cool and Connected toolkit has been deployed in Houston Texas in response to rising temperatures in the city and developed as an adaptable intervention that combines three key elements, petal-shaped shade pavilions, modular planting beds and integrated lighting designed to improve pedestrian safety after dark. It has been launched as part of Houston’s wider Public Realm Action Plan, which aims to transform a 15-block stretch of Texas Avenue into a more comfortable and walkable urban environment.
