An innovative approach to passive climate control and water management
How can architecture respond to the challenges of urban heat, water scarcity, and flooding—all at once? The TerraCoolfaçade prototype, developed at TU Delft’s Bucky Lab, offers a refreshingly simple yet ingenious answer: porous ceramic tiles that cool buildings through evaporation while reusing rainwater.
A façade that breathes with the weather
The TerraCool system is designed to mitigate the Urban Heat Island effect, passively cool buildings, and manage rainwater sustainably. The concept relies on a double benefit of design and material: ceramic tiles that absorb water and slowly release it through evaporation, cooling both the façade and the surrounding air.
Rainwater is harvested and stored around the building during wet periods. In dry conditions, it is gradually released via a sprinkler system that evenly distributes water across the façade. The unique bucket-shaped, overflow design ensures that the porous tiles are always saturated just enough to trigger the evaporative effect—reducing heat buildup naturally and efficiently.
Elegant engineering and circular design
Each tile is part of a mirrored modular layout, offering aesthetic flexibility for architects and façade designers. The aluminium hanging system allows easy installation, maintenance, and replacement—supporting circularity in building components.
Beyond its technical innovation, TerraCool also integrates environmental awareness into the built form: it doesn’t just cool a single building, but contributes to a more comfortable microclimate in dense urban environments.
A Bucky Lab success story
The TerraCool façade system was developed by Pieter van der Werf, Maja Dziwok, Janaina Schmittgens, Casey Poot, and Debora Pleijar as part of the Bucky Lab course at TU Delft. The project was supervised by Dr.-Ing. Marcel Bilow, Ir. Nadia Remmerswaal, and Ir. Hugo Nagtzaam with Aldowa as proud industry sponsor.
The prototype demonstrates how design and technology can merge to produce smart, sustainable, and aesthetically appealing building envelopes—a hallmark of the Bucky Lab’s hands-on, innovation-driven approach.
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