My brother always says that if he wanted to talk about the weather he would have called my mum.
But living here at the base of the alps the weather has a massive impact on how we work and play. I have had one of the most enjoyable ski seasons in years, but from one week to the next its either severe winter conditions or warm and spring like. The beginning of the winter was dry with months of frosts reaching -7 degrees C in the early evening, and lately we have had warm sunny days followed by days of rain and snow. It seems we are witnessing changing patterns and extremes in weather the scientists have been predicting. To cope with this our buildings need to be more robust and cleverly designed to provide the durability and comfort that we require. The careful consideration of what materials, mass, insulation and glazing to use and how we place these can provide huge benefits and value for money as well as providing an environment that is pleasing or uplifting.
There is a definite benefit in spending time at the early stage of the design to analyse how the functions and desires of the project will be affected by all the influences on the site. Allowing for the changes in climatic context provide a particular challenge but should be manageable with a bit of thought.
