The Europe Challenge

The Local Challenge

One of Europe’s hottest cities, Seville faces increasingly frequent and severe heat waves each summer, posing significant health risks. These extreme conditions particularly endanger vulnerable populations, including the elderly, children and those with preexisting health conditions. Recently, some public libraries have been used as climate refuges, offering a respite with their cooler interior temperatures. This highlights a pressing challenge: the need for safe, accessible spaces to protect the community during extreme heat events. 

 The Initiative  

Bibliokepos is rethinking library spaces as climate gardens, particularly in vulnerable neighbourhoods. This initiative aims to provide a safe haven during extreme heat events, raise awareness of ecological challenges, promote sustainable adaptation tools and resilience, and serve as a community hub. Working with university students and the library community to create an indoor garden using recycled water, Seville library’s book collection is also being reorganised around climate topics, with input from the community.

After The Europe Challenge

The project partners have plans to expand the climate garden initiative to other libraries, using outreach materials to make it transferable. They have made alliances with people, associations, educational institutions and companies who wanted to get involved locally through their knowledge, practices, care or time, to foster community skills. This has given greater visibility to public libraries, changing the traditional image of a space for study only, and promoting social services and reach new audiences that otherwise would not have approached them. 

Contact theeuropechallenge@culturalfoundation.eu if you have any questions or want to be connected with the team behind the project.