Climate Change, Migration The Climate-Safe Houses of the Future

Perry World House Visiting Scholar Jesse M. Keenan comments on climate-proofing housing in Gizmodo.

When Brandon Jorgensen picked up the phone, he was in the middle of prepping a photo shoot at his latest house in Napa, California. “We are getting very very close to, I wouldn’t say fireproofing, but fire-resisting a house,” Jorgensen, a designer, said, speaking from the home’s driveway. He described the eight-inch (20-centimeter) wall of the house he’s building, layered like a cake...

Jesse Keenan, an associate professor in the school of architecture at Tulane University, pointed out how our homes are already being subtly influenced by climate change. “Architecture has been adapting to changing environments since the beginning of architecture,” he said. Just last year, he said, the American Society of Refrigeration, Heating, and Engineers, which puts out guidance maps for air conditioning regulations, updated its maps to allow for larger air conditioning units in more states because of rising heat.

“AC is moving further north,” he said. “Now, we need to think about larger units in places where we might have only had smaller units.”

Read more in Gizmodo >>