Building for Tomorrow: Why Resilient Construction Matters
WLLW explores how resilient design can help homes adapt to changing climate conditions.
WORDS Elissa Rose
We ask a lot of a well-designed home. It should work for the people who live there and respond intelligently to its surroundings. Increasingly, it also needs to keep working as those surroundings change. That means thinking beyond how a home performs today to how it might need to perform in the years ahead.
That’s where resilience becomes part of the conversation around good design. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) describes resilience as the ability to prepare for anticipated hazards, adapt to changing conditions, and withstand and recover from disruptions. Rather than treating resilience as a specialist response to extreme events, we can think about it through a more fundamental question. How well can a home continue to support the people inside it when conditions become more demanding?
Construction technology company ICON and architecture studio Lake Flato designed a 3D-printed home in Austin, Texas. ICON’s proprietary material, Lavacrete is designed to withstand extreme weather. Photography by Casey Dunn
The answer depends on where that home is. A house exposed to prolonged heat has different needs from one in an area experiencing heavier rainfall. Resilient design begins with understanding those local conditions, then making decisions about the building and surrounding landscape that respond to them. At a wider level, the same thinking can help infrastructure remain operational during and after disruptive events, supporting the services communities depend on.
This is becoming more important as climate patterns change. A 2025 study published in the Journal of Climate projects significant increases in seasonal fire weather conditions across 68 to 91 percent of the world’s fire-prone areas by the end of the century. Resilient design can help homes respond to changing conditions by reducing potential damage and making recovery easier. It can also help them remain functional when the systems we usually rely on are interrupted.
Casa Flores designed by Fuster + Architects on the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico has been built to endure tropical storms with hurricane shutters being incorporated into the design. Photo courtesy of Jaime Navarro
Before making changes to a home, it’s worth understanding the specific climate-related risks associated with its location. Online climate risk tools can provide address-level insights into potential local conditions. But resilience is inherently place-specific. The priorities for a home in a drought-prone region may be very different from those for a property where flooding is the greater concern.
"Research has found that the proportion of people worldwide living in flood-prone areas grew by around 20 percent between 2000 and 2015."
With a clearer picture of local conditions, homeowners can focus on measures that make sense for their property. That might mean drought-tolerant planting in a water-scarce region or better protection from heat in a place where temperatures are rising. Resilience, at its core, is about designing in response to the conditions a home is most likely to face.
Mighty Buildings designed a 3D printed, net-zero home in Desert Hot Springs, California. This technology increases the home’s resilience to hurricane winds, flooding, fire, mold and extreme temperatures. Photography courtesy of Might Buildings by HANA Agency
Heat, Drought and Wildfires
Projections suggest that drought conditions are likely to become more common across parts of the USA over the course of the 21st century. In water-scarce regions, native drought-tolerant planting can reduce irrigation needs, while thoughtful water management can make better use of the resources available. Landscaping can also play a role in areas exposed to wildfire, where the choice and placement of planting around a home can help reduce risk.
Higher temperatures create another set of design considerations. Energy-efficient heating and cooling systems can help maintain comfortable indoor conditions while reducing energy use. The design of the home itself matters too. Good insulation and a well-designed building envelope can limit unwanted heat gain, while exterior shading can reduce the amount of direct sunlight entering through windows.
Flooding
As temperatures rise, the atmosphere can hold more moisture, contributing to heavier rainfall and increasing the potential for flash flooding. Research has found that the proportion of people worldwide living in flood-prone areas grew by around 20 percent between 2000 and 2015. For homes in areas exposed to flooding, resilience starts well beyond the front door.
Site drainage and grading can help move water away from a building, while permeable surfaces allow more rainwater to soak into the ground rather than running across hard paving. Rain gardens and other landscape strategies can help slow and manage runoff. At the building itself, sealing foundations and addressing existing cracks can reduce water infiltration. Thinking about the house and its landscape together can make water management a considered part of the overall design.
Australian studio Nielsen Jenkins designed Mt Coot-Tha House in a suburb of Brisbane with high blockwork walls to protect it from bushfires. Photography courtesy of Tom Ross
Power Disruption and Passive Survivability
Resilience also asks what happens when a home’s active systems stop working. During a heat wave or power outage, air conditioning, mechanical ventilation and other systems may be unavailable just when they’re needed most. Passive survivability looks at how well a building can continue to support safe, comfortable conditions during these periods without relying entirely on mechanical systems.
A well-insulated building envelope can slow changes in indoor temperature, while shading and considered windows can help limit heat gain. Where the climate and building design allow it, passive ventilation can provide another way to manage indoor conditions. Solar power paired with battery storage can also provide backup electricity for essential needs when the grid is disrupted. These measures connect resilience directly to building science and to the health and comfort of the people living inside.
Landscape architects Shma Company chose more than 20 different plant species on the urban plot of Forest House in Bangkok including different variety of trees, vegetables and herbs. Photo courtesy of Prapan Napawongdee
Resilience is increasingly part of what we should expect from good residential design. A well-designed home responds to its location and considers how conditions may change over its lifetime. It’s a way of making design decisions with a clearer understanding of place and how a home needs to perform. A resilient home is one that continues to support the people who live there when conditions become more demanding. Seen this way, resilience isn’t separate from good design; it’s becoming an essential part of what good design is responsible for.
Shinminka House, on Japan’s island of Okinawa designed by ISSHO Architects. Designed to withstand devastating typhoon winds while still allowing for cross-ventilation. Photo courtesy of Koichi Torimura
 Shinminka House. Photo courtesy of Koichi Torimura |
 Shinminka House. Photo courtesy of Koichi Torimura |
Featured Image: Snøhetta designed an ultra-efficient HouseZero at Harvard University. Photo by Michael Grimm
Photography: Casey Dunn, Jaime Navarro, HANA Agency, Tom Ross, Prapan Napawongdee, Koichi Torimura
