Warburg on How COVID-19 Underscores Need for Heat Mitigation Strategies
In a recent article on InsideClimateNews, Sasaki’s Director of Sustainability and Resilience, Tamar Warburg, AIA, discusses how designers are designing open spaces with heat mitigation in mind. This is by no means a new trend, but one exacerbated by high demand for comfortable outdoor space as COVID-19 forces more people to seek recreation, exercise, and entertainment outside:
As climate change drives temperatures up, landscape architects are increasingly designing outdoor spaces with heat mitigation in mind, said Tamar Warburg, director of sustainability at Sasaki, an architecture and urban design firm based in Boston. Now, Warburg said, the pandemic is shifting designers’ attention toward easing and expanding access to shaded green spaces.
“We are very focused on this effort right now, especially since Covid,” she said. “As we are trying to move shared activities outdoors, we are asking ‘How can we extend the outdoor thermal comfort season through design strategies that take on extreme heat?'”
Starting in April, the firm saw a rise in proposals from jurisdictions that were trying to rethink their open spaces, Warburg said. Architects and designers are considering how to allow for social distancing outside and are looking at ways to create more room for pedestrians on the streets. Sasaki has also used a strategy that involves linking parks together with shaded paths to create networks that allow people to commute on foot without being in the sun for too long.
“There’s a profound, renewed appreciation for the quality of public open spaces during this pandemic,” Warburg said.
Check out the full article, here.