The resilience of buildings to climate change: the role of mobile passive systems

Abstract

Climate change indicates that we are heading towards higher temperatures worldwide and greater temperature variations. To face this challenge, we need to adapt to coming conditions and minimize negative impacts on people and the environment. In this paper, we aim to generate evidence to inform decision-making when designing buildings in Switzerland by considering possible future climatic conditions and maximizing the time when buildings do not require neither heating nor cooling systems. We compare two cases, a static scenario where passive systems are permanent (wall and roof thermal insulation), and an adaptable scenario that accounts for movable passive systems (interior shutters, cross ventilation, and solar protection). The results show that the adaptable scenario returns over 1000 hours of free-running conditions more than the static case, both for 2050 and 2070. In the static scenario, the free-running period represents 25% of the year, while in the adaptable scenario it represents around 40%. Thus, passive strategies with movable devices can be a suitable approach to adapt buildings to future climate conditions, which would provide larger periods of free-running conditions, lower energy demand, and lower costs on permanent thermal insulation.