Main author
Michael BrooksBill Gething and Katie Puckett - Design for Climate Change
Bill Gething & Katie Puckett – ‘Design for Climate Change’
Published by RIBA Publishing (2013)
As climate continues to change at an unprecedented rate, and the built environment and construction contribute significantly to carbon emissions and energy use, adaptation will be critically important to ensure continued performance and thermal comfort for occupants.
‘Design for Climate Change’, written by leading climate change architect Bill Gething and journalist Katie Puckett, provides a useful and informative framework for addressing the challenges, both technical and professional, of adapting to the changing climate.
Aimed at students, architects and other building designers, with the intention of demystifying a complex field, the book was funded by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB). It draws on lessons from 26 real-world projects that sought to investigate different approaches to sustainable adaptation.
The book addresses: how the current building stock will perform in hotter summers and with more extreme weather conditions; how designs can be future-proofed; how challenges and potential solutions can be communicated by developers to clients; and what adaptation might mean for project costs.
The book examines thermal comfort and defines overheating, as well as steps taken to control both internal and external heat gains. It considers the various cooling strategies that can be adopted, from ventilation to the use of planting and landscape, and green walls.
There is also a useful chapter on designing for construction, with a particularly good double-page spread on different types of façade systems and their respective temperature effects depending on weather conditions.
Throughout, the book is written in an accessible style with many well-presented graphs, images and illustrations. Many of these are used to explain a variety of design and modelling tools, which are helpfully reviewed in terms of their application on the case studies cited. In the future, the book may benefit from an update to address the potential that BIM could have for modelling sustainable design solutions.
Design for Climate Change is an accessible and important book, and one that should be a common source of reference for those seeking to join and currently working in the industry.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings
- An Introduction to Passive House - review.
- Better Buildings: Learning from buildings in use - review.
- Biomimicry in Architecture - review.
- Building Revolutions - review.
- Carbon plan.
- Climate change science.
- Energy targets.
- Environmental policy.
- FutuREstorative - review.
- Green building.
- Greenhouse gases.
- Happold lecture on climate change.
- How Buildings Work - review.
- Retrofit.
- Sustainability.
- Target emission rate TER.
- Technology strategy board TSB.
- U-values.
Featured articles and news
We're expanding our collaborative mission by launching DB Intelligence, an exclusive market research advisory panel. Built environment professionals can now get paid to share their expertise on industry trends, products and services.
Panel members receive direct financial incentives for participating in research projects like short surveys, 1-2-1 interviews and focus groups. Register today to shape the future of the construction sector.
Planning condition discharge in England and Wales
A brief exoplanation from a building compliance expert, with further links.
Overheating guidance and tools for building designers
Guidance for dealing with element of building fabric control that have increasing importance.
Shading for housing, a design guide
From the Good Homes Alliance and British Blind and Shutter Association.
UK Standard Skills Classification (SSC)
A shared framework for describing skills needs.
Social media ban consultation comes to close
CIOB urges UK Government to consider social media’s role in careers guidance in ban debate.
The latest of eight Skills England apprenticeship units
The addition of battery manufacturing welcomed by ECA with a warning about the risks of fast-tracked apprenticeship units.
Building Control Independent Panel final report
A precis of a key report led by Dame Hackitt with full recommendations and link to the government response.
Building Safety recap April, 2026
A short and longer run-through of the month, with links to further information and sources.
CIAT May 2026 briefing.
From medieval scribes to modern word art.
ECA welcomes crackdown on late payment and push for clean energy, whilst CIOB seek fixed cladding removal timeframes.
Cyber Security in the Built Environment
Protecting projects, data, and digital assets: A CIOB Academy TIS.
Managing competence in the built environment
ITFG publishes new industry guide on how to meet the ICC principles.
The UK's campaign to reduce noise pollution: Mythbusting, articles and topic guides.
Comments
After the Design for Future Climate projects completed their work, Bill working with Dr Ian Cooper and Matt Thompson went on to write a follow on report examining the business case for climate change adaptation in buildings. This report was based on a series of workshops with the project participants and key stakeholders. The report can be found at - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-business-case-for-adapting-buildings-to-climate-change.
The detailed project reports can be found on the Innovate UK _Connect platform - https://connect.innovateuk.org/web/design-for-future-climate . Get them while you can as these repositories will be closed in the near future as the platform is wound up.
Any questions or feedback on this work? [email protected]