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Observing shade tents in Spain, modern coated fabrics have been seen to heat up rapidly when exposed to strong sunlight, in contrast to some traditionally used materials. On the other hand, enormous progress has been made in recent years in the field of technical textiles in general and coatings and surface treatments in particular. The aim of this research is to study the potential to improve summer cooling in the Mediterranean region through a combination of intelligent technical textiles and optimized solar-optical design. Textile composite membranes have a unique structural behaviour but their skin-like quality makes them also highly responsive to any fluctuation of received energy. Traditional concepts such as thermal capacity or conductivity cannot explain their thermal behaviour, which depends almost entirely on radiation and convection. The introduction of low-emissivity or thermo-reflectant materials will help to elevate comfort in shading, given that most textile membranes currently absorb and emit around 90 % of the received longwave infrared radiation. It is astonishing that emissivities as low as 5 % have been achieved in the field of multifoil, thermo-reflectant insulation materials, whereas the best rates of emissivity in textile membranes is currently about 30%. The results obtained by the manufacturers of these insulation materials from in situ testing inside building envelopes will form part of the research.