Evaluating climate change implications for typical office buildings in the UK: is the current building stock future-proof?

Climate change is considered to be one of the greatest long-term challenges facing the human race. With a predicted rise of the global average temperature in the range of several degrees Celsius by 2100 from a 1990’s baseline the potential implications of climate change on the way we live and work are evident. In particular buildings, inside which we spend a major part of our time, will need to adapt to changed environmental conditions. However, the current building stock is designed on the basis of historic climate data and in general not projected for the long term future. Nevertheless, the larger proportion of the buildings present today can be expected to be still there in 30 or 50 years time. Therefore, it is important to integrate climate change considerations into planning and refurbishment regimes now to produce buildings that are future-proof in view of climate change. This paper assesses the potential impacts of a changing climate on typical office building types in the UK with a particular focus on summer overheating. Office buildings can be considered to be the most vulnerable building type to climate variations due to high occupancy levels and high internal loads. They are the first buildings that can be expected failing to perform