As architects and designers, the challenge we face is designing structures to withstand not only the risks posed by climate change today, but also pre-empting our design considerations to combat the ever-evolving, unpredictable nature of these risks. For example, wildfires and sea-level rise may be natural disasters typical to our country’s west coast, though there’s no predicting if, when or how these issues will infiltrate elsewhere.
The key question our industry faces is what design strategies and considerations need to be made to ensure the climate resiliency and survivability of our buildings – both today and well beyond? How can we implement these considerations into our design?
The answer is that we will not achieve climate resiliency in architecture by meeting the code of today, but by meeting the code of tomorrow.
