Design for Climate Change

Climate change is a pressing concern for the construction sector. Building designers are already on the front line of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid catastrophic climate change, meeting increasingly tough standards and regulations on new developments and refurbishments. Now they must rise to a parallel challenge: helping society adapt to a climate that is already changing, and which will to continue to change for many years to come. Our built environment, and the way buildings are designed, constructed and managed, has evolved in response to a climate that has been broadly consistent for hundreds of years. That climate is changing at an unprecedented rate and, within a generation, our buildings may have to cope under very different conditions. How will todays buildings perform in hotter summers and with more frequent storms, floods and droughts? How can designs be future-proofed and existing buildings preserved, and at what cost? How should designers, contractors and suppliers adapt their skills and services to seize the initiative and a important business opportunity? And how can they communicate the challenges and potential solutions to their clients? Tailored to architects and other building designers, Design for Climate Change answers these questions and more. Drawing on the lessons from the first 26 real-world projects funded by the Technology Strategy Board to investigate approaches to adaptation, it is packed with invaluable insights, practical advice and clear, concise explanations, brought to life throughout the book with graphics and images.