Texans take pride in their tough, self-reliant spirit. But in recent years, Mother Nature has put the Lone Star State to the test, delivering several rounds of extreme weather that have flattened buildings, damaged infrastructure, and left people without electricity for days in freezing temperatures.

“Resiliency became a hot topic in Texas when people’s power went out,” says Ernesto Cragnolino, managing partner at Austin, Texas-based Alterstudio Architecture.

Alterstudio recently completed the design for a home currently under construction in Houston where the main floor is set significantly above the floodplain, residents can take shelter in a safe room during a hurricane, and an emergency generator can provide electricity during power outages. A decade or two ago, few Houston homes would have included such features—let alone all three. Today, resiliency is a primary consideration not only in Texas, but across much of the U.S. and around the world.

Increasingly, architects must balance aesthetic concerns with resiliency considerations. They’re selecting materials that are both stylish and strong, and they’re adapting their designs to anticipate the potential impact of flooding, hail, drought, earthquakes, power outages, wildfires, and more. Thick slabs of reinforced concrete hold up in most extreme-weather situations, of course, but who wants to live in a bunker? “None of our clients wants a room full of walls.” Cragnolino says. “They want windows. They want a view.” They want beauty, as well as brawn.

Addressing Wildfires and Drought

Resiliency has been on the mind of architect Nick Hopson, a principal at South Pasadena, Calif.-based Hopson Rodstrom Architects, since wildfires swept through sections of Los Angeles and surrounding communities earlier this year. The architect found himself reflecting on ways designers could help prevent or lessen the damage of future conflagrations.

“We currently use lots of glulam products and mass timber in our projects,” Hopson says, citing his firm’s 2024 RADA-winning Mar Vista House No. 1 in Los Angeles an example. “Glulam timbers are flame-resistant. And the thickness of mass timber makes it flame-retardant.” Natural timber and engineered tongue-and-groove wood product that are thicker than 4 inches tend to survive fires, as the outside chars and protects the interior wood fibers from structural collapse. Wood, ironically, can be a fire-resistant choice.

Landscaping can also impact resiliency. In areas prone to wildfires, vegetation should be kept low and away from buildings. Species that are native to the region are often the best bet for fire-resistance, Hopson notes. Some trees and plants, including arborvitae, eucalyptus, rosemary, and many ornamental grasses, are highly flammable.

Drought, of course, is a common cause of wildfires in California and elsewhere, so Hopson also looks for ways to retain water on site after a rain event. For a recent project, his team designed a swale that captures and absorbs excess precipitation. The lush, hydrated landscape is naturally fire resistant. What’s more, well-watered plants grow deep roots that prevent erosion—a significant benefit in places like Los Angeles, where steep slopes can collapse during cycles of deep drought and heavy rainfall.

Protecting Against Wind and Rain

Resiliency is also a concern for architects in coastal areas, where extreme weather often takes the form of heavy rains, hail, and high winds. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy pummeled sections of the Northeastern U.S. with unrelenting rain and gale-force winds, forcing flight cancellations, highway closures, and evacuations. New York City’s subway system was shut down for days.

Nowadays, hurricanes regularly threaten areas as far north as New England, and architects are designing structures that can withstand their effects, says architect Joe Carline, a partner with Kligerman Architecture & Design, based in New York City. Regional building codes were changed in the wake of Hurricane Sandy to make structures more resilient—a double-edged sword for designers.

“We’re putting more steel into houses to stiffen them against wind loads,” Carline says. “It’s definitely a design challenge.” Aesthetically, steel rarely blends with the materials found in either traditional or contemporary home design, he notes, so these elements are often concealed from view.

Resiliency is a key factor in window and door selection, too, Carline says. While today’s double- and triple-pane models offer improved strength, architects must still specify carefully for homes in high-wind areas. Laminated glass and thicker assemblies—including products with high design pressure (DP) ratings—may be necessary. DP ratings reflect a system’s ability to withstand wind loads and structural stress, as verified by standards from the American Architectural Manufacturers Association (AAMA) and the Window and Door Manufacturers Association (WDMA). Products rated DP 50 or higher, especially those tested at sizes exceeding industry minimums, offer the greatest protection.

The Bottom Line in Resiliency

In Texas, following the widespread outages of 2021, some homeowners began to invest in alternative power sources. When it comes to resiliency, photovoltaic panels can provide some amount of power in emergencies. But most large homes have extensive electrical needs and require a gas-fueled generator to fully meet their operational needs. And gas generators are not considered a sustainable solution.

Durability and energy efficiency are also vital components of resilient design. High-quality materials hold up better in extreme circumstances than low-grade ones, and high-performance energy envelopes help to lower ongoing maintenance costs. From a long-term view, sustainability and resiliency go hand in hand.

But aesthetic values—which are typically rooted in feelings and preferences rather than facts, figures, and weather data—also factor into the resiliency of a design, Alterstudio’s Cragnolino notes. Beautiful homes inspire us to invest in maintenance and upkeep.

“People only maintain things that are worth saving,” Cragnolino says. “That’s why quality is fundamental to design. You have to design homes that, in the end, people want to preserve.”