The future is now: Designing for climate, risk, and resilience at AIA25

No one can accurately predict the future. 

Many people envision their homes, offices and other built spaces lasting a lifetime. 

Architects struggle to reconcile these two thoughts as they do their work. And they do so in the face of a changing climate that has led to an increase in the number and severity of natural disasters, as well as rising liability and insurance costs.

“How do we as professionals think critically about climate and weather impacts on our communities? How do we design for the future, making sure we protect ourselves, our properties and our communities? And how do we pay for it?” asks architect Sammy Shams, AIA, sustainable design leader, health at HKS. A thought leader in resilience design, Shams believes that leaning into the methdology of AIA and HKS's Resilience Design Toolkit can help architects anticipate change and hazards throughout a building’s life and provide design features to mitigate risk and vulnerability. A session at AIA’s 2025 Conference on Architecture & Design in Boston, Future-Proofing Communities: The Power of Resilient Design in Architecture, showcased how current and next-generation designers can think about future-proofing communities. 

Anticipate and act

“Disney was practicing resilient design before resilient design was cool,” says Scott Brooks, principal architect-design assurance, Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, U.S. Inc. “Did you ever wonder how Disney World—with over 20 million square feet of roof and counting—has come through most calamities 99 percent unscathed?”

The theme park is a great example of one of the Toolkit’s first principles of instilling resilient design into a project from the beginning. The special district that governs Disney World adopted its own building codes in the late 1960s, at a time when Florida did not have a statewide building code or require local jurisdictions to adopt their own codes. (That wouldn’t happen until 1974.) Disney saw the need to “have a code that would provide a safe, sound environment that was resistant to the forces of earth, wind, fire and water; allowed for the use of new technology and encouraged the use of new materials,” Brooks says.

Disney World faces almost daily thunderstorms and has seen its share of hurricanes. At every step of the design process, “storm drainage principles were put into place,” Brooks says. “Drainage structures and ponds were built before development happened.” For example, the Seven Seas Lagoon was constructed before the Magic Kingdom “to be sure there would be adequate storage capacity for any possible water that would come from anticipated flooding,” Brooks says. 

They also specified the strongest roofs available at the time. Made of a modified bitumen, “these roofs were more expensive than a single ply rubber roof but when done right they are very resilient to uplift and wind force and are watertight,” Brooks says. “We coat them to extend their life, but we still have some roofs from the original construction in 1971.” 

When it came to fire mitigation, Disney World went above and beyond by installing fire sprinklers in every building. “It’s something you won’t find anywhere else in the world, not just the USA,” Brooks says. “That tells you how forward thinking the planners were at the time These were things that also helped promulgate what we call ‘resilient design’ now.” 

Codes, clients and conversations 

Nothing’s built in a vacuum. Starting from the beginning means incorporating efforts from all stakeholders, clients and design and building professionals. Each party must understand a project’s nuances, look for potential hazards and find strategies to mitigate them early. 

To encourage discussion, Elizabeth Camargo, founding principal EC Architecture + Design in Miami Beach, has been working to develop code changes in her capacity as AIA Florida president. Construction costs “are very high in South Florida. A lot of it has to do with site preparation and the need to elevate buildings,” she says. “We have to help clients understand that they may spend more today, but in the long run there will be savings.” 

Having a code that supports efforts for resilience design gives fodder for expanded conversations with clients, says Camargo, whose committee recently submitted an appendix to the Florida building code. It covers three areas: moisture intrusion; sea level rise; and water conservation and efficient usage. The hope is code adoption can help extend the life of buildings in Florida’s humid and salt environment. It’s up to each jurisdiction to decide if it would adopt the appendix. Only then could it be a mandatory part of the code, but it “opens the conversation and allows architects to bring ideas to clients in an easier way,” says Camargo who is optimistic that the appendix will be adopted as they go into the public hearing phase. “The future is today, and we should start designing for that.” 

Liability and leaning in

When AIA launched the Resilience Design Toolkit, HKS incorporated it into their projects and developed a design feedback loop. According to Shams they take an objective approach to analysis, find the hazards, develop mitigation strategies, then evaluate the strategies based on criteria and effectiveness and value for the client. “We weed out things that aren't as valuable as others. The ones that are valuable, we can develop further and put into the design. And it's a continuous design feedback loop that just rolls through,” he says.

Shams offers the example of a Florida children's hospital, where HKS is applying the toolkit process. They analyzed the owner’s project requirements, assessed different types of building systems, enclosure systems, layouts, LEED and WELL opportunities and put it through the feedback loop. The region encountered hurricanes Helene and Milton last year. They were front lines for hurricanes and weather events. “That impacted our process, so we made a more focused drive to better respond to weather and climate events,” Shams says. They made sure the design included 100 percent emergency backup power, so the hospital could be self-sufficient for about a week. They specified wells for groundwater and for use in the building. Well water is not allowed for potable water in this area. They’ll also have connections for trucks to come in and bring potable water. There will be space for extra supplies on site and, while it’s still in development, HKS is extending sewer line capacity to keep the hospital functioning.

Taking this forward-thinking approach can help design professionals protect themselves against liability and lower risk, but due diligence is key. Shams admits the approach does create “a bit of a conundrum. By highlighting vulnerabilities and possible impacts, “we should reasonably be able to predict design for those impacts in the future. If we don't do it, we become negligent. It will impact the standard of care for all architects. We can't just sign a paper and say, ‘We did this so you can't sue us.’ Document everything. And if the client says, ‘This is too expensive, we're not going to do it,’ that's fine. At least you documented it and showed that this is something for which there is a reasonable need for the project." 

Architects and designers need to keep themselves safe professionally because in the future, this will become more and more of an issue. Says Shams, “We need more industry discussion between people who are doing this thoughtfully and those for whom this is not on the radar.”

Stacey Freed is a freelance writer focusing on architecture and design. She lives in upstate New York.