The artificial condition of an urban environment modifies energy consumption and thermal comfort. The higher temperatures in a city center in relation to peripheral areas, lead to the formation of an urban heat island. Therefore, working on the thermo-physical properties of materials (roofs, floors and facades) is a feasible mitigation strategy to reduce the temperature of a city. The main objective of this project is to study the capacity of 80 regionally available façade coatings to mitigate the negative effects of the urban heat island by determining the Solar Reflectance Index (SRI). The material that had the most efficient behavior was Travertine Rulato Acrylic fine ivory (SRI = 100%, Temp. Sup = 35 ºC), whereas the most inefficient was the fine dark gray Llaneado Acrylic (SRI = 29%, Temp. Sup = 74 ºC). There are also intermediate options that result from the combined effect of the material composition, color and texture. This situation shows that it is possible to mitigate the heat island effect by using the appropriate selection of vertical cladding.
Facades coating; Solar reflectance index; Urban heat island; Bioclimatic urban design
