DESIGNING PART O COMPLIANT BUILDINGS CANNOT WAIT
Ellen Huelin, Sustainability Director at Whitecode Consulting, underlines the need to prevent overheating through holistic building design, and how specifiers can incorporate more effective ventilation and cooling into building design.
HEATING, PLUMBING & VENTILATION
With the UK having experienced one of its warmest summers on record, overheating in buildings has very much come into focus. In fact, the Building Engineering Services Association recently called for urgent action to tackle the growing number of overheating buildings, suggesting the rising number of deaths linked to longer and more intense heatwaves is creating a very serious building safety issue.
Imperial College London research estimates that more than 1,147 heat-related deaths during the summer were caused by climate change. This worrying statistic is supported by data from environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth, that identified nearly 5,000 neighbourhoods in England now regularly suffer from heat stress.