Cities designed as air-conditioned hell

Our cities must embrace stricter building codes mandating climate-responsive designs and rethink relationship between architecture, climate, and energy

- K YATISH RAJAWAT

WITH SOARING TEMPERATURES across the country, India is witnessing an early heatwave and a scorching summer ahead. Our glass-covered concrete buildings will become heat traps, and rising energy consumption will add another layer of pollution in urban centres. This is not a one-off summer. The average summer temperature is increasing steadily every year, while rain has become a sporadic instance of cloud bursts. Despite the rapidly rising extreme climate reality, architects, builders, and even city planners continue to make and encourage heat traps in the form of glass facade-covered offices across the country.

CXOs complain about low summer attendance, and it's not the vacation effect. Glass-covered offices are fundamentally unsuited for Indian climates. They allow heat to be trapped inside, designed to block natural light and air. The heat inside the building is thrown outside using large energy-guzzling air conditioning plants or diesel generators during power outages. Air conditioning recirculates the same air again and again, and the lack of fresh air inside offices makes the occupants anxious and irritable all through the day. This is not a new revelation.