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Resilient Buildings are Sustainable and Protect Life

This webinar is part of the RAIC 2023 Conference on Architecture, now available to stream!

Topics:ÌýClimate Justice and Resilience, Sustainability, Adaptation and Mitigation

Length:Ìý1 hour |ÌýWhat's Included:ÌýVideo, Quiz, andÌýCertificate of Completion

For communities to thrive, the buildings and structures that make up that community must be able to stand up to challenges presented by climate change, severe weather, fire, earthquakes, floods and other natural and human-caused disasters. This presentation will delve into ways effective building envelopes and precast concrete can contribute to sustainability and adaptation design and buildings that protect business, lives, lifestyles and livelihoods. What is the current state of the art of building science and how is it resilient and adaptive to climate change? Resilience is a building’s ability to endure normal loads for its normal life service. As we are well aware, the future holds abnormal loads and conditions for buildings. The need to refocus how we design is apparent. Rather than designing to the loading conditions determined by the past 150-300 years, we need to design to forecasted loading conditions and projected vulnerability to changing climate impacts. This should involve tracking hazard-relevant climate indices and their potential consequences to major building components. A typically 1-in-100 year event may now be occurring every 2 years. We need to change our reference points from past events (which the current building codes are based on) to climate change projections on micro and macro levels.

Three essential factors of an effective building envelope will be discussed:

• Understanding the durability of components within the building assembly on a micro and macro
• Continuity between all other building assemblies and interfaces
• Mechanisms of deterioration and their effect on building components

Whole building airtightness testing requirements are slated for inclusion in upcoming National Building Code revisions. This will be a large step in the history and development of the air barrier component of the building envelope and can feed into quality control and quality assurance programs mandated in local jurisdictions .Considering traditional building materials; there is increasing difficulty in sourcing these commodities that we have been reliant upon. What materials and construction methods are available to us to address resilient design? We will discuss precast construction as a viable construction method to achieve resilience and sustainability. Contribution of effective building envelopes and precast concrete construction to building climate resiliency and adaptation

Learning Objectives:

By the completion of this session, participants will be able to:

• Define the concept of resiliency and distinguish the contribution of effective building envelopes
• Delineate how essential components of effective building envelopes contribute to resilient design: Durability, continuity and mechanisms of deterioration
• Understand how upcoming whole building airtightness testing code requirements can encourage durable, robust building envelopes
• Identify and describe the role precast concrete construction performs in building climate resiliencyÌý

Subject Matter Expert: