If a building is damaged or becomes uninhabitable due to an event, the cost in either repairs or lost revenue can dwarf the initial investment in a more resilient design.
My last several columns have looked at code requirements for resilience and government plans to enhance resilience. These efforts focus on the “big picture” — overarching plans and guidelines meant to move resilience forward on a broad front and considering multiple hazards and scenarios. However, it is also worth taking a step back to specific hazards and applications. One way to do this is to look at case studies for various projects. One such case study, published in 2019 by the Rutgers Center for Green Building, looked at how people responded to a heat wave.
A study performed by Rutgers examined how residents of three Housing Authorities of Elizabeth, New Jersey, responded to a heat wave. One property, let’s call it (A), contained 421 units in 15 three-story walk-ups with new roofs. The second property, property (B), consisted of one 11-story building with 121 units and extensive upgrades, while the third property, (C), was a LEED Gold, 30-unit senior living facility with all units having central air conditioning. The research used indoor and outdoor sensors to measure the air quality and structured interviews with the residents to determine how they responded to the heatwave.