Stop Designing for the Past: Your Future Could Depend on It

You hope your building is going to last for at least 50 or 60 years—so why are you designing it for the past?

More and more building professionals are beginning to ask this question. The climate is already changing, but the weather files used to model features like passive design, choice of mechanical equipment, and sizing of stormwater infrastructure assume stable temperature and rainfall—and use data that ends in the early 2000s or even as far back as the 1960s. “Using historical data may put our clients at risk,” said Ariane Laxo, an interior designer at HGA who has been studying the issue. “And we could be putting ourselves at risk by using information that we know won’t be reflected in the future.”