Redesigning School Buildings to Stand up to Climate Change

This feature article from EdSurge spotlights the Alief Independent School District, on the outskirts of Houston, Texas, to show how architects are learning to remake schools – both in their design of new facilities and through renovation projects – as “resiliency hubs” that help protect students and communities from 100-degree heat and other extreme weather. The district’s own officials and its consulting architects are quoted extensively.

At one of the district’s newest buildings, for example, they describe how adaptations to heat and flood-risk are woven throughout the building and grounds: a portion of the campus is planted with native grasses to serve as a retention pond during heavy rains, and the school is equipped with an HVAC system that can maintain thermal comfort indoors when the temperature outdoors hovers in the triple-digits. District officials point to other ways that rising heat, especially, is driving their decisions about school facilities, grounds, and equipment. Metal equipment was removed from playgrounds, for example, and wooden structures replaced canvas coverings as the district recognized its persistent need to shade students during outdoor activities. Synthetic turf on the high school football field, which could reach a surface temperature of 120 degrees, was replaced with turf that deflects heat.

Architects and designers who work with the district describe how the prospect of extreme weather now informs nearly every aspect of their work, from the selection of building sites to the choice of materials and paint colors. And they discuss how their thinking goes beyond regular school-day concerns to how schools can be designed and equipped to provide reliable cooling and shelter to the community during weather events like the severe winter storm of 2021 that knocked out power across Texas.