· The Ballroom del Círculo It is transformed once again into a Climate Refuge: an open space for citizens to take shelter from the heat and collectively think about the climate emergency.

· This summer, the shelter proposes playing to stimulate the imagination, expand the limits of what is possible, question what seems inevitable and build hopeful stories.

· The project has the collaboration of the Biodiversity Foundation (MITECO), Reale Foundation, FECYT, Azotea Grupo and the Madrid City Council.

El Círculo de Bellas Artes Madrid's Climate Refuge, a large green space designed to combat high temperatures, has reopened and will be open to the public until September 6th (from 11 am to 21 pm). The city center will once again have a landmark that serves as a reminder of the need to create climate-controlled spaces, open to everyone, where people can find refuge from increasingly high temperatures, which are especially harmful in urban environments.

The Climate Refuge and its accompanying programming continue a reflection that el Círculo It began years ago by making the climate emergency one of the central pillars of its activity. Since then, the institution has understood this challenge, one of the most urgent of our time, not only as a topic of debate, but as a field from which to think, experiment, and imagine new ways of inhabiting the world.

In 2025, over 60.000 people visited a refuge that focused on advocating for a slower, more shared, and sustainable pace of life: the right to pause. This year, the theme revolves around PLAY as a way to explore possibilities, try out new rules, build shared narratives, and discover other ways of relating to the world and those around us. In this exercise of openness and experimentation lies one of our greatest strengths: imagination. Thanks to it, we can question what seems inevitable, expand the boundaries of what is possible, and construct hopeful narratives about the present and the future. Playing and imagining are, ultimately, ways of rehearsing the worlds yet to come.

This year, the heart of the refuge is 62 landings, an installation designed by Recetas Urbanas. It is a temporary, habitable structure that transforms the Ballroom into a large, elevated living room, composed of platforms, terraces, balconies, and cozy corners to linger in. More than an architectural intervention, it is an invitation to inhabit the space from unexpected perspectives and to choose how to spend time there: resting, reading, playing, conversing, observing, or simply being.

This structure will be reused from September onwards as a shelter and shade generator in the public schools of Seville: IES Punta del Verde, IES Miguel Servet and CEIP Huerta de Santa Marina.

Recetas Urbanas was founded in 2003 by Santiago Cirugeda, who leads a team characterized by constant experimentation and by understanding the city as a laboratory and a space for conflict resolution.

On Thursday, July 9th, at 5:30 pm, the Climate Refuge will open its doors with a collective siesta, inviting everyone to slow down and reclaim rest as a shared practice. Led by Las Lindas Pobres, the session will unfold a soundscape that blends ambient, electronic, jazz, and dub music, creating a space for listening and pausing.

Among the first activities is the Political Fictions Crisis Cabinet (July 10), a participatory project organized in conjunction with the Commissioner for the Celebration of 50 Years of Spain's Freedom. This initiative invites participants to imagine a scenario in which the current economic and political order suddenly collapses. How would we react? Through debate and collective experimentation, participants will explore possible responses to a global crisis and imagine alternative models of coexistence and a new political ecology.

Within this framework of collective climate reflection, the conclusions of the first working sessions on the creation of a network of cultural climate shelters, an initiative promoted by [organization name], will be presented at the shelter on July 16. el Círculo With the support of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation, the day will continue with a lecture by sociologist Eric Klinenberg, organized in collaboration with the Commissioner for the Celebration of 50 Years of Spain's Freedom. Considered one of the leading international voices in the study of the role of public facilities and community life, Klinenberg will reflect on contemporary urban and climate challenges.

La Escuela SUR at the Refuge

Body in Refuge is the title of the winning piece of the "LIFE INTEMARES in the Climate Refuge" competition, organized by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, and the Escuela SUR del Círculo de Bellas ArtesIts author is Ángela Enero Febrero, an alumna of the Master in Arts and Artistic Professions CBA-UC3M and an interdisciplinary artist who combines sculpture, installation, performance, digital video art and musical production.

The artwork, which will remain at the Climate Refuge for the next few months, is a hybrid sculpture in which the human body appears integrated inside a sea turtle. Both bodies are linked in an ambiguous relationship, marked by both alteration and the possibility of support.

La Escuela SURTogether with the La Imprenta collective, they are also organizing a Reading Party on July 20th. It's an invitation to read together, putting aside screens, notifications, and the rush of daily life to dedicate time to something increasingly scarce: attention.

Games, workshops and conferences for all audiences

In addition to these offerings, the Refuge will host interactive games in collaboration with Tranjis Games, group hacking sessions for titles such as Settlers of Catan and Seven Wonders, games of Game of Kin, Half-Earth Socialism, and Werewolves of Miller's Hollow, workshops on textile transformation and object repair, chess tournaments, and lectures such as the one given by astrophysicist Diego López Cámara on August 6th about the total solar eclipse visible this summer. All activities are free and open to the public.

Workspaces, a water fountain, game tables, a reading corner and a plant nursery complete the services and facilities that will remain open in the Ballroom until September 6.

The Climate Refuge 2026 del Círculo It is carried out with the collaboration of the Biodiversity Foundation (MITECO), Reale Foundation, FECYT, Azotea Grupo and the Madrid City Council.