The Business Case for Adapting Buildings to Climate Change

Gale & Snowden Architects and Engineers have been working with the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) / Innovate UK to produce a legacy report for recent work undertaken for the Design for Future Climate, Adapting buildings (D4FC) programme which generated a substantial body of evidence for how different buildings exposed to different climate risks can best be adapted for a changing UK climate.

“We need to adapt existing and new buildings to be safe and comfortable in a hotter climate”

The Business Case for Adapting Buildings to Climate Change, page 11

The legacy report analyses the drivers that affect the market for professional building design services to ready buildings for the changing climate. Recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports confirm the climate trends that make adaptation important and urgent.

The legacy report from the D4FC programme responds to the Government’s National Adaptation programme and considers adaptation to climate change at the scale of individual buildings. It identifies that the need to have a plan for adapting the UK’s stock of buildings is already urgent.

Building designers have a professional duty to understand the potential implications of climate change, discuss them with clients, and act accordingly. Over time, it seems likely that liabilities will arise for building designers to take reasonable account of future climate change. As a consequence, building designers should at least inform clients about climate change risks, and record the outcome.

Building designers should favour passive adaptation design measures to avoid compromising efforts to mitigate climate change. At the same time, they should also recognise that these might not be sufficient to cope with climate change from the mid-century onwards and more active measures may be required to keep buildings from overheating. 

The concluding section of the report considers how adaptation services might become mainstream, identifying possible market and policy failures and summarising the case for intervention, including by central Government.

David and Jason were expert panel members for the Innovate UK’s legacy report and contributed to both the Client Group and the Building Designers Group.

 

 

St. Loyes Extra Care project, Exeter, by Gale & Snowden Architects.

Gale & Snowden Architects and Engineers provide a full 'Design for Future Climate' consultancy service for both existing and new build projects. The integration of a climate change adaption strategy for a development is best undertaken at the outset of the project and can often, for little additional expenditure, ensure that a project is fit for the future without the need for either significant and costly adaption measures or the introduction in the future of energy intensive systems.

Gale & Snowden Climate Change Adaption Diagram for the St. Loyes Extra Care project, Exeter.

Further information on Gale & Snowden's 'Design for Future Climate' consultancy service is available here:
Climate Ready: Designing for Future Climate Scenarios