A few days ago, during the worst heatwave in the UK (40 degrees on record), a Twitter user pictured a growing problem in the country“So being above 36ºC would be devastating here, whereas in another country it would be just annoying: houses with no awnings, no air conditioning, small windows, and houses designed to trap heat and not let it out at night”. What’s going on in the British country these days is hell in capital letters.

However, it is not the only country in Europe currently facing extreme heat. These sun-hungry nations are not accustomed to prolonged high temperatures for most of the year. Not only people are incompatible: almost all their homes.

Current problems. For decades, homes in northern European countries such as England or Germany have been built for one purpose: to keep people warm in winter. Therefore, air conditioning was almost never included in them, as summers are normally mild. Now, climate change is turning all that upside down. Did they want energy efficiency? Here they take it.

In 1970, after the oil crisis, governments began to focus on more airtight urban planning, sealing homes to prevent heat from escaping and thus reducing fuel consumption for heating. This meant strengthening buildings and insulating new ones. But as temperatures rose, experts realized the problem: reduced airflow. It’s a growing problem in cities, where exterior concrete also absorbs heat during the day and radiates it at night. The so-called urban heat island effect.

Therefore, 36+ degrees in the UK is catastrophic, while in Australia it gets annoyingly hot. Houses without awnings, air conditioning, small windows and generally designed to trap heat do not allow them to go out at night. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/0scjSTlDck

— Kornelis Sietsma (@kornys) 16 July 2022

UK case. Millions of homes across the country were built when heatwaves were rare weather events. And now, here’s the price to pay: 20% of homes already overheat in summer. After ten years of criticism, the government introduced the “Future Homes Standard” policy in 2021: from now on all homes will need to be well ventilated and temperature resistant. However, this 2022 wave caught them off guard.

Transportation and urbanism. As we mentioned in other Magnet articles these days, some countries have canceled trains due to the risk of the steel rails melting or overheating. Note that some railways in France or the UK are very old and made with steel rails that tend to be 20 degrees above ambient temperature. The London Underground dates back to 1863, and most trains still don’t even have air conditioning.

Then there’s the heat island effect, where the concrete buildings and surfaces of major cities absorb and amplify the already scorching heat. In most of Europe, green spaces have been reduced and it has become necessary to replant trees in pedestrian areas to create shade and prevent concrete and asphalt from overheating.

architecture. Experts explain in this article that one key to avoiding all this is to make sure that houses have windows on opposite sides that allow breezes to flow. However, modern apartments often only have windows on one side, making airflow difficult. And that’s only if the window can be opened. Materials can also help. But of course, due to costs, floors are made with materials with lower thermal mass, which cannot absorb heat during the day and release it at night.

Coup. As we can see, they are a disaster. At a skyscraper in Shenzhen, China, high temperatures were blamed for shaking and draining the structure as steel cracked from the heat. Materials, especially metals, can expand as they are heated, causing them to bend. Extreme temperatures can even cause them to melt.

All these come together at a common point.: climate change and its consequences. As we have seen, wealth does not protect against the effects of global warming, and all nations (even the wealthy) will have to adapt quickly to lessen its impact. Because yes, wherever you are in the world, damage will be random. In fact, modern buildings in rich countries are more at risk than simple traditional buildings.

Answers. Even in less developed countries that suffer from this problem, projects are underway to revive architectural styles using locally cooled materials that naturally cool. For example, as discussed in this Surface article, handcrafted houses built with sun-dried mud bricks to absorb heat are being revived in India. Note that this country adopted cement as the dominant building material in the late 20th century. It doesn’t seem to be working.

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