Architects and building engineers
Practitioners framing climate-sensitive design criteria and reviewing interacting building and site systems.
Insight Book
Climate-Resilient Buildings
Design, Retrofit, and Stewardship for a Changing Climate
ISBN 978-1-991367-08-2 · Global Climate Solutions · First EditionKnowledge for practical climate action.
Heat, flooding, wildfire, and service failures expose the gap between a building that meets a standard and one that protects people through disruption.
Climate-Resilient Buildings helps architects, engineers, owners, housing providers, and public planners connect technical decisions with daily operations. Its evidence-led framework links hazard assessment, occupant needs, and infrastructure dependencies to proportionate design and investment choices.
Learn how thermal safety, water pathways, structural performance, and site conditions interact. Assess retrofit priorities using condition records, observed performance, and renewal opportunities. Understand how codes, insurance, financing, affordability, and delivery capacity shape what teams can achieve.
Robert C. Brears also examines monitoring, resident evidence, post-event review, and adaptation triggers. Readers gain a clearer basis for defining essential functions, testing assumptions, assigning responsibilities, and keeping residual risk visible. Use these principles to make resilience a continuing practice across individual properties and portfolios.
A framework for informed decisions and accountable action.
- 01
Distinguish climate hazards, building vulnerability, and external-service dependencies when assessing a property.
- 02
Evaluate thermal safety, water pathways, structural load paths, and wildfire exposure as interacting design questions.
- 03
Use condition records, observed performance, resident evidence, and renewal windows to prioritize retrofit work.
- 04
Assess how codes, enforcement capacity, insurance, financing, and affordability affect delivery of resilient buildings.
- 05
Design proportionate monitoring and post-event reviews that protect privacy and support occupant-sensitive decisions.
- 06
Maintain review cycles and adaptation triggers that make assumptions, responsibilities, and residual risk explicit.
Contents
View the full contents 7 sections
- Introduction
Resilience as a Building and Portfolio Responsibility
- 01
Reading Climate Risk at Building Scale
- 02
Designing for Thermal Safety, Water, and Extreme Events
- 03
Retrofitting Existing Buildings and Managing Portfolios
- 04
Governance, Finance, and Implementation Capacity
- 05
Operating, Learning, and Adapting Over Time
- Conclusion
Building Resilience as Disciplined Long-Term Stewardship
For readers turning evidence into action.
Building owners and portfolio managers
Decision-makers linking condition, performance, maintenance, and capital planning across existing assets.
Housing providers and public planners
Teams coordinating retrofit delivery, resident communication, affordability, and equitable risk reduction.
Policymakers and resilience programme leads
Professionals aligning standards, finance, delivery capacity, continuity planning, and long-term accountability.
Robert C. Brears
Robert C. Brears is the founder and editor-in-chief of Global Climate Solutions. His work connects climate resilience, water security, nature-based solutions, sustainable finance and the transition to more resilient cities and industries.
View author profile →Publication information.
- Format
- EPUB · Paperback
- Edition
- First Edition
- Publication
- 2026
- Publisher
- Global Climate Solutions
- eBook ISBN
- 978-1-991367-08-2
- Paperback ISBN
- 978-1-991367-09-9
- Language
- English
Explore the subject.
Thermal safetyFlood and wildfire resilienceBuilding retrofitPortfolio stewardshipGovernance and finance
Read the book
Climate-Resilient Buildings
Robert C. Brears also examines monitoring, resident evidence, post-event review, and adaptation triggers. Readers gain a clearer basis for defining essential functions, testing assumptions, assigning responsibilities, and keeping residual risk visible. Use these principles to make resilience a continuing practice across individual properties and portfolios.
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