Resilient design approaches entail the strategic integration of principles and strategies that enhance a building's capacity to withstand and recover from various stressors, such as natural disasters, climate change, and socio-economic shifts. This approach emphasizes not only the durability of structures, but also their adaptability and ability to bounce back in the face of adversity. Resilience operates across scales and timeframes, encompassing buildings, communities, and regions.

• At the building scale, strategies encompass handling climate impacts, situating critical systems smartly, using future climatic models, passive survivability, robust materials, beauty, energy optimization, water conservation, waste solutions, local resourcing, and hazard-resistant specifications.

• Community resilience involves social structures, local food systems, transport alternatives, stormwater management, communication hubs, education, and infrastructure planning.

• Regionally, policies must value ecosystem services, protect aquifers, develop transportation and renewable energy networks, encourage diverse economies, and support regional manufacturing.

While total resilience might be unattainable, incremental steps can enhance resilience progressively, positioning systems and societies for better preparedness and responsiveness.

This talk explores end-of-life scenarios in architectural design, highlighting five essential factors. Firstly, embracing uncertainty in future design involves envisioning diverse scenarios considering climate, life cycles, and technology. Feasible end-of-life plans require mapping structures, recycling options, and user preferences. Climate emergencies call for adaptable solutions with flexibility and reversibility. Secondly, "design for disassembly" advocates creating reusable material banks through systematic dismantling, favouring modularity and prefabrication. Thirdly, recognizing varying element lifespans informs organized design layers for efficient maintenance and disassembly. Fourthly, design principles like modular structures, open systems, and durable joints ensure non-toxic, recyclable materials. Lastly, extending a building's life entails user, maintenance, and disassembly manuals, alongside material passports for informed reuse. Overall, there should be emphasis on foresight, adaptability, and systematic approaches to enhance sustainable architectural practices.

Designing for flexibility in constructing long-lasting buildings aims to create structures that can effectively adapt to changing circumstances, whether due to demographic shifts, climatic variations, or evolving functions. To achieve this, a flexible building should efficiently accommodate diverse scenarios and potential changes without requiring significant alterations. The approach encompasses adaptability, transformability, and convertibility – all contributing to a resilient structure. Designing for climate change adaptation involves incorporating appropriate architectural solutions to withstand disasters and enable swift reconstruction. This necessitates open-ended designs with robust load-bearing capacities, modular expandability, and energy-efficient systems. Moreover, the concept extends to user-centric adaptations, encouraging easy separations and open layouts. Key factors encompass optimal room dimensions, accessible designs, avoidance of built-in fixtures, and effective energy and infrastructure planning. Emphasizing reversible construction and disassembly adds to the approach's sustainability

The text highlights the sustainability of reusing and retrofitting existing buildings over demolition. This approach involves careful analysis of structures and materials for potential retention. Designing with a climate emergency focus encourages circular construction and reuse, treating buildings as resources.

• Reuse transforms buildings into material banks via urban mining, extracting materials for new purposes.

• Adaptive reuse involves repurposing buildings for different needs through renovation, conversion, infill, redesign, or addition.

• Material reuse involves repurposing materials for new functions, including upcycling and recycling.

Flood mitigation strategies includes raised ground, flood proofing, and strategic retreat. These approaches address the increasing flood risks in developed areas. Retreat strategies involve removing structures from flood-prone zones, restoring natural processes.

• Raised ground, entails elevating land to mitigate flooding risks. Particularly effective in low-lying regions adjacent to water bodies, it functions as a barrier against floodwaters, safeguarding buildings and homes. It can be complemented by other flood protection measures. However, this approach can be costly and requires adaptation to rising sea levels.

• Flood proofing, reduces flood impacts on structures through modifications like elevation or flood barriers. These structural and non-structural measures shield buildings and equipment. Effective flood proofing necessitates meticulous planning and collaboration.

• Strategic retreat, involves relocating communities and infrastructure from flood-prone areas. This curtails flood damage risks, but the process must be well-coordinated to minimize social and economic burdens. Addressing equity and cultural concerns is crucial, as certain communities may be disproportionately affected.

These strategies should be part of a comprehensive flood risk reduction approach, enhancing flood resilience by considering both their benefits and challenges.

Flood retention strategies explores four key strategies: floodable plains, floodable squares, polders, and stormwater infiltration. Unlike defensive methods, these strategies store excess water to mitigate floods, crucial in urban areas with rising surface flooding and compromised drainage. Stormwater infiltration aids flood control by absorbing rainwater into the ground rather than overwhelming stormwater systems.

• Floodable plains act as catchment areas for heavy rain and overflow, doubling as recreational spaces during dry spells.

• Floodable squares are intentionally designed areas that transform into pools during rain, yet serve as urban spaces when dry.

• Polders, reclaimed lowlands surrounded by dikes, protect against floods and enable development, requiring careful maintenance and sustainable practices.

• Stormwater infiltration employs green techniques like rain gardens and permeable pavements to naturally filter and slow runoff.

These strategies underscore the importance of synergy between nature and infrastructure, fostering resilience, safety, and environmental well-being.

Three key soft strategies for flood management include living shorelines, dunes and beach nourishment, and floating wetlands. Soft strategies emphasize enables effective flood management through holistic, nature-based solutions to mitigate flooding risks. They are gaining popularity due to their restorative nature, and are often paired with hard strategies for hybrid solutions. These strategies provide habitat for biodiversity and can serve as recreational spaces, although human disruption remains a concern.

• Living shorelines are inclined natural banks with vegetation and natural materials that lessen wave impact, best suited for moderate flooding when combined with levees.

• Dunes act as natural barriers, but proper vegetation is essential for stability. Armored dunes can enhance protection but need careful design.

• Beach nourishment widens beaches, reducing erosion and storm surge impact, although its effectiveness varies. Designing these strategies involves protecting vegetation, creating paths, and setting back development.

• Floating wetlands, made of buoyant materials, are adaptable and best for sheltered waters. They rise with floodwaters, filter pollutants, and provide wildlife habitat.

Challenges for soft strategies include extreme weather limitations, maintenance costs, and technical expertise. Opportunities lie in ecological benefits, affordability, community involvement, and environmental enhancement.

Water resilience – hard strategies focus on five primary hard flood protection strategies: sea walls, flood walls, revetments, breakwaters, and dikes. While historically predominant, these resource-intensive approaches aim to resist floods. However, the shift towards resilient alternatives emphasizes the importance of a comprehensive approach. For instance,

• Sea walls can serve as both protective barriers and communal infrastructure, highlighting the potential for multifunctionality.

• Flood walls, akin to sea walls, require integration with softer strategies.

• Revetments, sloping structures along riverbanks, mitigate wave energy and erosion, with design considerations for vegetation and water connections.

• Breakwaters, perpendicular to shorelines, reduce wave energy and storm damage, offering opportunities for biodiversity integration and improved access.

• Dikes, or levees, safeguard critical areas from floodwaters and require stability and ecosystem compatibility in design.

Despite challenges like material intensity and maintenance costs, hard strategies offer some benefits and enduring protection. However, integrating these strategies with softer approaches ensures effective flood risk management.

Your project should never contribute to tipping points and ecological or climate breakdown. Instead, use your design to identify how you can positively impact the planet and restore some of the previous damage done. This means redirecting current human-centric design approaches towards an inclusive, biodiverse, restorative future using the principles of radical inclusivity, biophilia and topophilia. We should strive towards an approachable architecture that can be used by different living-beings in different (adaptable) ways. Following these principles steers us towards more ethical professional practices that support planetary health, instead of damaging it.

Designing for the climate emergency is not only about focusing on direct impacts (i.e., reducing energy use and CO2 emissions), but responding to its symptoms, (in)direct causes and often unequal consequences. As architects we also hold a significant responsibility towards the public in our work: we are designing the spatial frameworks in which people live their lives and participate in society. As an architect you have a moral obligation to make better decisions, even if you are not rewarded for doing so. This requires a commitment to continuous research, conscious decision-making, curiosity, and creativity to innovate and to challenge the often damaging and unfair status quo. It also requires an in-depth understanding of questions of fairness and justice related to one’s own work.

As architects we have the moral responsibility to work beyond the brief and be critical about clients’ wishes or aspirations which might perpetuate (social, spatial or climate) injustices. To take into consideration international justice & intergenerational ethics you should commit to social, spatial and climate justice. To do this, design for resilience, adaptability and inclusivity. To take in consideration human and non-human relationships, each project should commit to restorative and regenerative design, centred around the principles of radical inclusivity, biophilia and topophilia.

The United Nations established 17 interconnected Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) to underpin sustainable development with the idea to protect the planet, end poverty and ensure people can enjoy peace and prosperity. All 17 goals are relevant to your architecture project, and in your project you must ensure that you understand their interconnections and relevance to your project and how you can use the goals to understand your responsibility as an architect. At the same time also be aware that the UN SDGS are still based on operating within the current socio-economic growth principles. Instead, the goal of the economy (or human activity in general) should not be to grow but to thrive within planetary boundaries. Your project should explore how we can thrive within our planetary boundaries.

Designing for vague ‘future generations’ mainly focuses on the use of resources and the environmental impact of our actions and does not clarify who we design for today, in the present, nor who will be impacted in the future. In your project, you need to unfold why you design and who for. This includes: the local user, the public, the non-human and nature but also a global responsibility towards people, non-humans and nature further away, and ultimately our planet. We introduce the concept of ‘care’ which recognises and embraces our (inter)dependence, connection and responsibility towards others at its heart, including the non-human. This profoundly challenges the (modernist) ideal of an independent, visionary architect who only designs for themselves. But without this care, empathy and solidarity towards the user we cannot have truly sustainable architecture.

Architects need to prevent building demolition and should transform the existing fabric instead of building new. Low energy retrofit not only reduces carbon emissions, resource use and urban sprawl, but also tackles social injustices (e.g. energy poverty) and energy security. Designing low energy retrofits is not just upgrading for energy efficiency, but also involves:

• Enhancing carbon storage by rewilding and using bio-based materials

• Circular economy principles and use of non-virgin materials

• Future proofing through future climate change adaptation

• Multifunctionality and adaptability, reducing excess floor area and sharing of spaces

• Avoid unintended consequences that affect health and well being or jeopardises the building fabric and that does not materialise energy and carbon reductions.

Architects need to prevent building demolition and should transform the existing fabric instead of building new. Low energy retrofit not only reduces carbon emissions, resource use and urban sprawl, but also tackles social injustices (e.g. energy poverty) and energy security. Designing low energy retrofits is not just upgrading for energy efficiency, but also involves:

• Enhancing carbon storage by rewilding and using bio-based materials

• Circular economy principles and use of non-virgin materials

• Future proofing through future climate change adaptation

• Multifunctionality and adaptability, reducing excess floor area and sharing of spaces

• Avoid unintended consequences that affect health and well being or jeopardises the building fabric and that does not materialise energy and carbon reductions.

Insulation reduces and slows down heat transfer and therefore reduces heat loss in winter and heat gains in summer. This significantly reduces the operational energy and carbon impacts. To design low energy buildings you need to specify materials with low k-values, i.e. thermally insulating materials that reduce heat transfer. Human-made materials often have better thermal conductivity, so less insulation material is often needed for the same thermal performance, but at often a higher embodied carbon cost (i.e. more energy to manufacture). This is why it is important to evaluate the full life-cycle implications of insulation materials should be carefully considered, not only its thermal performance.

Because the design of the building fabric is so important for indoor environmental comfort and reduced energy use, integrating it right at the start of your project is referred to as fabric first principles. This is crucial for passive resilience and low energy design. Understanding the principles of heat transfer (conduction, radiation, convection) aids in designing appropriate climatic design solutions. This talk covers these heat transfer principles and how it affects decision-making about your design in different climates.

For summer and in warmer climates we can use passive cooling strategies, including natural purge ventilation to cool spaces and people. But continuous year-round background ventilation is also needed to remove humidity and safeguard good air quality and occupant thermal comfort. Continuous year-round background ventilation is difficult to provide reliably through natural ventilation. Instead MVHR (Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery) systems are a low energy option, providing controlled extraction of warm, stale air and recovering heat to warm up the fresh air supply. When combined with high levels of insulation and airtightness, this provides low heating needs in a cold and temperate climate – all key strategies for low energy buildings

Thermal mass can balance winter space heating needs in continuously used or heated / cooled buildings. In warm periods in cold/temperate and in hot/dry climates, thermal mass can help keep buildings passively cool. This might achieve energy and associated operational carbon savings and greater thermal comfort. Thermal mass must always be combined with good night-cooling to avoid build-up of high temperatures in summer-time. It is also increasingly important to design (summer) solar shading to prevent direct incidence of the sun inside spaces: i.e. reduce the source of heat in the spaces to begin with to reduce overheating risk.

Thermal mass materials need to be exposed to the air, and careful specification is needed to not create buildings with high thermal mass but also high embodied energy and carbon.

Windows are an important design aspect of your project because they affect and are interconnected with many aspects of your design. Windows provide spatial delight and atmosphere, enable solar gains when desirable, and natural summer ventilation and cooling when needed and they allow light, views and connection to the outside. All of these aspects are important for comfort, health and wellbeing and energy use and associated carbon emissions in buildings. It is therefore important in your project that you consider windows from all its different aspects: ., their orientation, location, sizing, shading, thermal specification (U-values and g-values) but also their usability, openability and cleaning ability.