Climate Change
How to Design Low-cost, Climate-adaptive Housing
7 min
Publication date: 03-11-2025, Read time: 7 min
The world is an increasingly hazardous place because of global warming. Inadequate climate adaptation leads to more and more heat-related fatalities, notably in low-income countries. In many places, the problem is made worse by poorly designed housing.
Experts predict that global temperatures will continue to rise this century, probably by more than 1.5 to 2°C. This suggests that extreme heat will become more frequent and dangerous, particularly for society’s most vulnerable groups. Worldwide, over 5 million deaths per year are already linked to temperature extremes; due to poor health records, the real number is probably even higher.
The issue is largely caused by the fact that many homes aren’t designed to cope with rising temperatures. In the Majority World in particular, lots of cheap, low-tech housing is informally built. Professional housing design tools tend to be too complex and expensive, or unsuited to local circumstances.
Why climate sensitivity matters
Housing design tools are most effective when they’re climate-sensitive, with the flexibility to adapt to different and changing climate conditions. Tools with access to future climate projections are better at designing climate-adaptive and comfortable homes.
It's important that such tools don’t just look at weather averages but also take into account extremes. That’s the only way to ensure that housing is up to the challenges of climate change and that people can live there safely. Tools that use detailed, region-specific, and up-to-date climate data are generally better at designing climate-proof homes.
Selected design tools
A recent study investigated how well existing design tools and guidelines help to ensure indoor thermal comfort in future climates, with a focus on low-income households building their own homes.
In view of the target audience, the researchers set out to make a careful selection of simplified, practical design tools that people can use without needing serious processing power or specialised skills.
Based on extensive desk research and input from tool developers and users, the researchers identified four suitable tools for designing low-cost, climate-adaptive housing.
Study approach
The researchers evaluated the selected tools using Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM), a method for comparing and ranking options based on multiple factors or criteria.
With the desk research and expert input, they developed five primary criteria:
- adaptability to future climate scenarios
- accuracy and design guidelines
- user-friendliness of the interface
- accessibility of the tool
- adaptability of the tool to users’ needs
These criteria were assigned importance using the Weighted-Sum Model (WSM).
In the next step, a panel of 32 expert professionals, mainly working in the Majority World from relevant sectors, scored the criteria through a survey. They ranked climate adaptability most important, followed by user-friendliness and adaptability.
The survey also brought to light several additional criteria that could be useful for future research.
Tool #1: The Mahoney Tables
The Mahoney Tables were developed in 1961. They offer simple, climate-based design guidelines without the need for advanced software. Using basic climate data, they help to identify the local climate type and develop design strategies to improve thermal comfort.
Tool #2: ShelTherm
ShelTherm is a simple design tool aimed at humanitarian workers. Using weather data from thousands of locations, it helps to assess how heat and air move through basic shelters. The tool can also be used to inform natural ventilation strategies, always with a focus on health and comfort.
Tool #3: Shelter Assessment Matrix (SAM)
SAM is a free tool that helps humanitarian workers to assess and improve shelter designs based on local conditions, costs, and user needs. As it scores factors like indoor temperature, air quality, and daylight using site-specific data, it can be highly useful for design evaluation.
Tool #4: Zero Energy Building Reduced Algorithm (ZEBRA)
ZEBRA is a cutting-edge tool that helps to design climate-resilient buildings from the early stages. It can integrate both operational and embodied emissions and is adaptable to more than 3000 locations. Its intuitive interface makes it usable for professionals as well as inexperienced users.
General findings
Between the four tools evaluated, ZEBRA stood out as being the most accurate, comprehensive, and geographically adaptable. It's ideal for early-stage sustainable housing design, but could do with more features to incorporate risks presented by extreme weather.
SAM’s user-friendliness makes it well-suited for low-cost, humanitarian settings. However, this tool does need updates for future climate scenarios.
ShelTherm is good at handling basic shelter materials and ventilation, but its climate adaptability could be improved.
Finally, the Mahoney Tables provide simple design guidance. Unfortunately, the climate data used is quite outdated.
Recommendations
After providing detailed recommendations for improvements for each assessed housing design tool, the authors note that future research in general should focus on creating tools that are more comprehensive and flexible.
Besides individual homes, they should also be able to address neighbourhoods and social infrastructure.
Furthermore, future tools should promote local, sustainable materials and reuse. And more attention should be paid to user-friendliness, community engagement and participatory design. Tools should also include better features for climate adaptation and hazard assessment, and enable vulnerable communities to build their own homes in a sustainable way.
This story is an adaptation of a published journal article: Hendriks, E., Kuchai, N., Marghidan, C. P., & Conzatti, A. (2025). Adapting Housing Design Tools for Indoor Thermal Comfort to Changing Climates. Sustainability, 17 (6), 2511. It has been adapted with permission from the authors and in accordance with the copyright license CC BY 4.0
To read the original paper, follow the link below:
Last edited: 03-11-2025
