Resilience. It’s a term heard more and more. But it’s not just another buzzword. It’s the new frontier for residential construction that will drive innovation in our industry for decades to come.
Improving resilience is a complex, multifaceted task that involves the interaction of all aspects of developing, inhabiting, and governing the built environment. Builders need a defined roadmap for putting resilience into practice. Home Innovation Research Labs has just been awarded a two-year, $400,000 contract from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to create the guidelines that will help builders and developers incorporate resilience into their projects.
Under this contract, Home Innovation’s expert team and assembled advisory group will produce a set of practical, actionable guidelines for builders and developers to design and construct residential buildings, neighborhoods, and accessory structures to improve residential resilience and integrate that resiliency with the entire community. The guidelines will focus on new construction and major re-construction after natural disasters -- especially re-construction in areas where entire communities need to be rebuilt after significant events. The guidelines will not focus on minor repairs or renovations that are common after most natural disaster events and will not address non-residential buildings. The guidelines will take regional and climatic differences into account, and will provide guidance on how to effectively interact with local ordinances and broader community resilience and operations plans.
Metrics are a critical part of meaningful, long-term resiliency, and they will be a core element of the builder/developer guidelines. Resiliency metrics will include:
Because the ANSI development process is part of Home Innovation’s corporate DNA, project managers will employ many ANSI protocols when assembling the Advisory Group, developing the content, and requesting input from the public. For those interested in helping to create these important guidelines for builders and developers, the application for the Residential Resiliency Guidelines Advisory Group is now open. Home Innovation will be accepting applications through November 18, 2019; selected members will be notified and announced in early December.
Looking forward, Home Innovation plans to develop a formal resilience standard based on the ANSI process and the resilience guidelines. For more information on the project, contact John Peavey, P.E., Home Innovation’s Director, Building Science.