Changing Climate, Changing Architecture

William Gething, coauthor of Design for Climate Change, warns that traditional construction materials will “behave differently” in a world wracked by global warming:

Brick, for example, is likely to become more saturated, particularly with increasing insulation standards, so it is likely to be less effective at keeping moisture out. Materials move more in higher temperatures, so joint design will need to take this into account. More intense rainfall events mean that gutters need to be sized differently.

Amid these challenges, Steve LeVine heralds the rise of the “extreme-weather architect”:

The emerging class of architecture suggests the onset of a global design-and-construction industry worth tens of billions of dollars in the coming years. Places such as the Netherlands have had to build around environmental- and weather-related challenges for years. But to the degree that extreme-weather architecture and construction moves to the mainstream, it would become one of the biggest infrastructure…