I think about the alarms in our lives—they wake us up or warn us about danger ahead. Growing up in the Midwest, we learned the difference between fire and tornado alarms. Each has a set of related actions. One prompts you to run out of the building. The other warns you to seek shelter in the basement. While the dull hum of the radio emergency broadcast system seems quaint, we all still jump to the sound of coordinated mobile phones shrilling with an urgent weather alert. But are we listening to the alarms about climate change?
According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, in 2022 the U.S. saw 18 weather/climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each. These disasters resulted in the untimely death of 474 people and significant economic effects in their local areas. From 1980 to 2022, the annual average was 7.9 such events. The annual average for the last five years (2018 to 2022) is 17.8 events.
While extreme weather is happening more frequently and with greater strength, most current building codes are based on historic incidents reflecting a past climate paradigm. While well-intentioned and designed to ensure safety, building codes need to be expanded to incorporate today’s key health and safety issues. Simultaneously, architects should be and are thinking about the implications of building codes and how some are holding us back.
Model building codes were originally created for basic safety and to protect building inhabitants from naturally occurring and human-made hazards such as fire, collapse, poor indoor air quality, thermal discomfort, and plumbing failures, among others. Addressed through regulation and organized legislatively, these are commonly referred to by design and construction professionals
as issues of health, safety, and welfare.
At a time when building performance should be rapidly advancing, we have seen building regulation development and adoption processes plateau or even regress in important areas. It can take a decade or more for a new concept to achieve acceptance and adoption into codes and standards. Efforts need to be made to update building codes to reflect a more holistic definition of HSW that incorporates the effects of climate change, growing social inequity, and human health crises. But change through codes will not be enough—the future must be designed now.
AIA’s Resilience Network is a great forum for knowledge sharing on topics related to hazard mitigation, climate adaptation, and disaster assistance. It also contributes to advocacy efforts with the Resilience Building Coalition, promoting new local, state, and federal codes or changing existing codes that no longer apply.
Architects see challenges and hazards as opportunities. Both the mindful design of the built environment and the policy design of regulation will lead us to impactful change. By not hitting snooze on our alarm and designing the future now, we will be safer and more protected. This is the true aspiration of health, safety, and welfare.