Submissions | VizChitra 2026
Too hot to open
kashvi
data designer•the ken
Description
Idea in one line Experience India’s extreme temperatures through doors that show which days are safe to step outside.
What counts as “data” in your project? Heatwaves in India are becoming more and more intense and frequent, with summer temperatures in many regions routinely exceeding 45 °C. But the numbers on a weather report don’t always capture what the heat actually “feels like” on your skin outdoors.
The Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) calculates this “feels-like” temperature, based on air temperature, sunlight, humidity, and wind. The index is a scale where values between 9°C and 26°C indicate comfortable conditions, while values above 32°C signal strong heat stress, and those above 46°C mark extreme heat stress.
The estimate of how it feels like to be outdoors allows us to identify which days are safe to step outside.
We look at 1994, 2009, and 2024 to track how heat stress has shaped daily life over three decades in various regions. By layering this data with indoor and outdoor job types, then and now, we also bring focus to how extreme heat affects work, mobility, and human experience, showing the unequal ways people live and cope with rising temperatures.
Data Source
Where will the data come from? We will focus on a selection of locations in India that are particularly prone to heat stress, showing how these areas have become hotter over the decades. Data Source: The UTCI dataset (link: https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/datasets/derived-utci-historical?tab=download) provides “feels-like” temperatures at a lat-long level from 1939 to 2026, with data recorded by year, month, day, and hour.
Visualization Method
Each year will be represented by a series of doors, where the state of each door reflects the heat on that day or week. Open doors signal comfortable conditions, while closed doors signal extreme heat, when stepping outside becomes risky. The doors, made from thick paper or thin cardboard, will stand on a base so visitors can clearly see them open or closed. Arranged in sequence, they create a surface that tells a story at a glance: from a distance, viewers notice the gradual closing of doors over time; up close, they can explore daily or weekly variations and subtle shifts. Layered into this display is a divide between those who can escape heat and those who cannot. We will use objects for various professions placed on either side of the door, to highlight how heat interacts with work, income, and daily life. As visitors move along the installation, the growing number of closed doors evokes a sense of restriction, discomfort, and unease.
Technical Requirements
Technical requirements Display Area. Wall-mounted or pedestal display area of approximately 1.5 to 2.5 meters width. Clear sightline from a distance away to see overall patterns
Project Status & Timeline
Can you finish this in time? Yes. This is a new proposal which will be developed for VizChitra. We will be able to complete this in about 6 weeks which will include finalising UTCI data selections, mapping safe, moderate and extreme heat days for selected cities and regions, prototyping the installation, testing materials for mounting the doors, and the building, production and final testing of the work.
Previous Work
View PortfolioTeam
kashvi+surbhi
We are a designer–data journalist duo collaborating for the first time, pooling our strengths and dividing our effort to bring this to life!