Most modern buildings are not designed to cope with increasingly harsh environments brought about by changing climate, a researcher at Heriot-Watt University has said.
Most structures built over the last 40 years were designed with historical climate data in mind. But scientists predict that by the 2030s and 2040s they will need to contend with rising global temperatures, increased rainfall and unpredictable weather patterns.
Susan Roaf, a professor at Heriot-Watt, has called on architects to begin adapting building design for the future realities of a changing climate.
“We are moving into a world that is getting significantly warmer, with extreme weather records being broken year after year,” she said.
“Our workplaces, our public sector care facilities and our own homes must be designed to cope with future conditions, and currently ‘modern’ designs simply are not compatible with this reality. The government’s focus now is on warm homes, but the need for cool homes is growing.
“More intense...