Changing weather patterns are demanding that housing be designed to be resilient, to protect residents, and to keep them healthy, comfortable and safe. At the same time, consumers are seeking property in the most risky areas, making this design challenge an even bigger issue.
Most housing is being built in some proximity to coastlines that are in danger of flooding within the next thirty years. New technology is able to capture key metrics and data that can help builders and developers create solid strategies, yet it will still take high level collaboration across numerous stakeholders. Data experts are sharing
One such expert, Emilie Mazzacurati, founder and CEO of Four Twenty Seven, shares her thoughts on climate change risk in this interview with HIVE Re:think podcast host, Philip Beere. Mazzacurati is an ambassador for helping businesses and communities understand environmental challenges and then develop effective resilience strategies. She has published extensively on climate policy, and teaches at the University of California, Davis on business and climate change.
In this podcast, Beere speaks to Mazzacurati about the importance of data, the most successful strategies to deal with legislators, the most effective design tools, and other resources that can be designated to this building hurdle.
More and more, the front line to combating climate changes will rely on technology – the technology used to capture data and inform designers, builders and legislators about the risks. More sophisticated data sets will help builders adapt design and construction and adopt new building codes that are also being put in place to address these changes.
But, just having the data will not solve the issue. It will take true collaboration from all stakeholders, dissecting the data and applying solutions that will protect the residents and also that will be economically feasible, a combination that doesn’t arrive easily. As Mazzacurati says, cities will need to adapt and manage risk, but will need funding and imagination.
Housing developers will continue to see a new evolution of technology, such as drones that can survey the land more accurately and efficiently than ever before, and there are other advanced design tools that could offer renders and be able to run projections of the impact of different types of climate situations on the design.
In a country where the idea of climate change or something out of the hands of the population, Mazzacurati discusses how these developers can leverage new capital opportunities from financial institutions that recognize the potential of lowered risk, and ways to with local legislators to support more aggressive action that would benefit more resilient housing.
Episode 1: Can Housing Boost Human Evolution to Survive Climate Change?, featuring Emilie Mazzacurati, is also available on SoundCloud and on iTunes.
