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Extreme heat: how UK buildings and infrastructure are dangerously ill-equipped to cope
21st Jul 2022
After cooling down from our record-breaking heatwave, our Director of Innovation Delivery, Chris Bowie-Hill has featured in an article by Estates Gazette regarding the UK’s severe lack of climate-friendly design in the built environment and how we can overcome the issues we face with rising urban temperatures.
Temperatures soared to unbearable levels with some parts of the UK reaching over 40 degrees on 18th July 2022, giving us our first-ever red extreme heat warning as well as reported fires across London.
Speaking to Estates Gazette, Chris said:
“The one thing we have all realised, from either travelling into the office or working from home, is that our buildings and infrastructure are dangerously ill-equipped to cope with such extreme weather conditions. We need to evolve the way we design our cities to manage the unprecedented hot weather.”
Following on from this, Chris comments on how the UK shouldn’t be afraid to re-think the way we plan our cities:
“We should be looking at nature-based solutions, introducing blue and green infrastructure, such as increasing urban regreening and using water to double as flood mitigation”
To read the full article, along with comments from other industry leaders, head over to the Estates Gazette’s website.
