Global Warming and How the UK Should Aesthetically Prepare for It

It's very clear that the UK is experiencing the effects of global warming, in the form of longer dry spells and more violent storms. This is according to the Met Office, which reports that we can expect to see, with an average temperature increase of 1 degree from the 1961-1990 long term average, warmer and wetter winters and hotter, drier summers, like that we saw in 2018.

    It seems clear that, in mostly all of our infrastructure, we are underprepared for this kind of climate change. The Climate Change Committee said as much in their 2019 Progress Report to Parliament. A telling statistic in the report is this: that 'the prolonged heatwave in summer 2018 caused a 40 – 50% increase in asset failure rates on hot days compared with normal. For early hot days (April-June) this was up to 80%.' The sun is set to cripple already lax British punctuality.

    But it seems to me that not enough thought is going into our built environment: our homes, our grand structures, our rural hamlets, where the summers feel like entering a Dali painting, ‒ clocks, horses, and trees melting amid the arid grass of the village green. 

    We should be building houses with cool spaces, adapting our built environments (especially in the South) to resemble a more European, specifically Mediterranean environment. Shade and water should take pride of place. The modern obsession with glass is unhealthy, and if anything reflects our refusal to seek privacy and seclusion. Where space is available, stone structures resembling cloisters, built around central courtyards to encourage neighbourliness, should be built. Vernacular architecture will have to change with the climate, placing an emphasis on introspection, and keeping us cool in the process.