AbstractPolish architecture tutors and critics Roman Rutkowski and Lukasz Wojciechowski identify a new kind of architecture in [ecosistema urbano]'s ingenious temporary tower pavilions for a sterile new housing estate in Madrid. Contributing power to the local electricity grid, these towers are explicitly designed to provide shelter from the unmediated heat of the harsh external environment through their cooling effect and in so doing to stimulate communal activities and events. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.