Keeping cities cool is a year-round task
It might seem strange to be writing about overheating in winter. I doubt its top of your mind right now. A quirk of human psychology is focusing on what is right in front of us, sometimes to the detriment of less obvious issues. But if you’re a built environment practitioner, whatever time of the year, you need to be considering heat waves, changing weather patterns, flooding, storms and snowfall all at the same time. So, let’s talk about heat.
Antonietta Canta (Arup) recently joined me on the podcast to discuss overheating in buildings in the UK and the findings of Arup’s report on the subject. I won’t get into the details of the report here as Antonietta explains it all eloquently in the episode. But the short version is that a lot of homes in the UK are already overheating at times and the risk will increase over the coming decades with climate change. Obviously this has health and wellbeing implications for millions of people, with similar trends likely in other countries.
The conversation revealed some interesting findings. For instance, new apartments overheat worse than houses and older properties. This is likely a combination of increasing standards around energy efficiency (more insulation) coupled with often poor ventilation in new developments. We’ve been improving buildings for winter months but forgetting about the summer: a classic example of focuses on climate mitigation (using less energy) to the detriment of climate adaptation (living in a new climate reality).
I was interested to hear Anto (we’re friends, I can shorten her name) champion the greening of cities as a cooling measure. Putting all the onus on architects and building engineers to ‘fix’ overheating misses the reality of the urban heat island effect, which can make cities unbearably hot in summer. So, another reason to depave cities and plant trees.
But there is a frustrating lag effect in planting trees. I glance out the window of my third storey apartment to look at the young street trees planted 2 years ago and realise it will be many years before they are tall enough to provide any shade to my home. So, a combination approach is likely the best: install shutters or shading devices to the building, ensure windows can open wide and bring some water down to the trees in summer to help them survive (I have literally done this during heat waves).
As Anto says, architects and engineers need to take a holistic approach to building design and collaborate with planners to green cities. Let’s also get landscape architects involved in overheating strategies for buildings!
Listen to the episode with Antonietta here or on your preferred podcast app.
Pair that with the episode with Joao Cortesau, who discussed creating ‘cooling urban water environments’ to adapt public spaces to climate change. Episode here.
Any thoughts on this topic? Start a conversation in the comments!
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See you next week,
Ross