Resilience in Building Design
In building design, resilience refers to a structure’s ability to adapt to and recover from external stresses while providing and maintaining safe and comfortable indoor conditions. In NZEBs, advanced insulation, sealed building envelopes, and dynamic ventilation systems are key but must be carefully integrated to protect the building from future climate stress.
1. Maintain stable indoor thermal conditions: it should effectively manage heat gains and losses through the combination of both passive and active cooling strategies to prevent overheating under the changing external temperature (Tripathi & Shukla, 2024) (Colclough & Salaris, 2024)
2. Ensure high indoor air quality: by incorporating proper ventilation systems, while maintaining an airtight construction, hence leading to a dwelling that filters pollutants and moisture levels are controlled (Colclough & Salaris, 2024)
3. Adapt to future climate Conditions: It must be able to ensure thermal comfort and a good indoor air quality environment regardless of the projected temperature increase and evolving weather patterns (Colclough & Salaris, 2024) (Mulville et al., 2025)
Designing for Comfort and Safety
It is essential to create an indoor environment that promotes thermal comfort, healthy air quality, and overall occupant well-being. This involves balancing energy efficiency with a human-centred design strategy to help achieve a dwelling that is resistant to any outside climate change.
Why?
Ireland is one of the countries with a high number of people suffering from respiratory sickness, as nearly one in ten Irish people (11%) reported having at least one condition. Both women, children and elderly people (peaking at 65 upwards) tend to be the group with the highest percentage. This information shows why it is critical to ensure that good indoor air quality is achieved (Healthy Ireland, 2023)
Elder
Women
Children
Graph of Irish people with difficulty with pain, breathing, or any other chronic illnesses or a combination. Based on a 2023 Healthy Ireland survey report (Healthy Ireland, 2023).
A graph was created displaying the percentage of the age group among genders, with asthma, based on a 2023 Healthy Ireland survey report (Healthy Ireland, 2023).