Asking the right questions about built environment resilience

During a panel session at October’s Greenbuild International Conference + Expo, 2026 AIA President Illya Azaroff, FAIA, spoke about how to create a better built environment when financial institutions, building owners, and parts of the AEC industry have historically viewed sustainability and resilience as separate aspirations.

“Sustainability and resilience are two sides of the same coin,” Azaroff said, reiterating a notion he has long championed during his years as an AIA leader. As architects continue to build awareness of that connection among developers, investors, and other stakeholders, the industry is expanding its ability to move from reactive to proactive design strategies for climate action. Azaroff frames that shift as moving from “doing less harm to doing more good” for people, communities, and the environment, a concept he also highlighted during the first AIA Regenerative Design Summit a week before Greenbuild.

The convergence of approaches for regenerative design, sustainability, and resilience was a central theme of Greenbuild's daylong summit Designing for Resilience in an Era of Climate and Disaster Risk. Organized by U.S. Green Building Council staff and members, the summit launched this year’s edition of Greenbuild by exploring climate risk, adaptation, financing, community engagement, and stewardship.

Experts at the summit included government officials, architects, engineers, scholars, policy experts, and sustainability and resilience leaders. They highlighted several pressing questions related to resilience in the built environment now and in the future.

How do we move resilience from aspiration to expectation?

Designing for resilience has often been framed as an additional project consideration, pursued when budgets, policies, or stakeholder priorities align. But recently, resilience-related requirements have started becoming more embedded in the frameworks that shape design and development decisions from the outset.

The introduction of climate resilience requirements in LEED v5 reflects a broader shift toward building climate-risk considerations into design intent and project delivery. Integrated conversations about codes, professional standards, climate-risk assessments, and performance expectations suggest that adaptation planning and risk reduction are showing greater influence on how projects are designed, delivered, and evaluated. 

Sophisticated climate analytics and risk-assessment tools are also expanding architects’ and sustainability professionals’ ability to anticipate future conditions and make decisions regarding both hazard mitigation and operational performance.

Learn more about AIA's Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Pledge, which helps firms integrate resilience throughout the design process and bring it into conversations with clients, consultants, and communities.

How do we design for hazards that are constantly changing?

Major hazards such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and wildfires remain central concerns for design and life safety, but increasingly, resilience measures extend beyond acute events. Frequent extreme heat, changing precipitation patterns, utility strain, and sea level rise are creating chronic conditions that affect how buildings and infrastructure perform long-term. Communities are being challenged to prepare for a wider range of risks that affect their environment and public health.

In New York City (this year’s Greenbuild host city), localized climate projections, robust climate action implementation plans, and cross-agency coordination efforts are transforming how the city invests in infrastructure, coastal resilience, public space, and building performance standards. Such efforts present a model for other locales that points toward the planning for future conditions rather than relying exclusively on historical data. 

Architects can build upon this momentum by advocating for infrastructure and building systems investments and site strategies that accommodate evolving risks, changing environmental conditions, and shifting community needs for decades to come.

Getting certified as an evaluator with AIA’s Safety Assessment Program can help you understand how to anticipate and recover from hazards while enabling you to give back to communities at the same time. 

How do we appropriately retrofit what we’ve already built?

Across sectors, retrofit and adaptive reuse projects require teams to balance resilience and performance objectives with budget constraints and aging building systems. Those complexities can make renovation work more difficult than incorporating adaptation strategies into new construction from the beginning.

Programs in New York City are pairing resilience goals with electrification and housing affordability goals, while California has invested in seismic retrofit initiatives ranging from crawlspace bracing in single-family homes to improvements in multifamily soft-story components. Improving the existing building stock through similar methods depends on financing mechanisms, public incentives, and policy support that make upgrades feasible at scale.  As cities and institutions seek to protect people and extend the life of existing assets, input on retrofit resilience strategies from all building industry stakeholders will remain critical.

Broaden your knowledge with the AIAU Resilience in Practice series, which explores hazard mitigation, retrofits, codes, standards, and resilience design strategies.

How can resilience strategies create value beyond risk reduction?

One of the strongest themes to emerge from the Greenbuild summit is that investments aimed at reducing climate and disaster risk can also advance broader community goals. Public infrastructure improvements to coastlines, parks, and public buildings can serve as platforms for neighborhood engagement and education. Design projects are becoming opportunities to build awareness about climate action, strengthen local partnerships, connect residents with adaptation efforts, and build awareness of local ecological and environmental needs. 

For architects and designers, recognizing the opportunity to strengthen public awareness and community stewardship through resilience-focused projects can also elevate broader understanding of the value of design. Thinking beyond risk reduction expands the definition of performance to include how investments in land and public space strengthen social connections, support local priorities, and contribute to community well-being.

Read AIA’s new report, Creating a Better World Together: Financing and Building Regenerative Design, to learn how diverse stakeholders are aligning regenerative design with stewardship and shared value.

How do we scale solutions across communities?

Designing for resilience through proactive adaptation strategies and hazard-mitigation programs has proven effective through local pilot projects and targeted investments. The challenge industry leaders are now discussing includes finding methods to move those approaches from individual successes to widespread adoption.

Developers and building owners in different regions around the world face many of the same pressures, such as insurance costs and climate uncertainty. The greatest impact solutions for incorporating widespread adoption of resilience measures will be the ones communities can replicate, fund, maintain, and adapt over time.

Scaling those solutions requires communication, policies, financing structures, implementation frameworks, and performance standards that can outlast leadership changes and shifting community needs. Architects are often at the center of these conversations. They help bridge the priorities of owners, policymakers, insurers, investors, and the public.

As the architecture profession advances new approaches to designing more resilient, sustainable, and regenerative buildings, adapting proven strategies to local conditions will be essential for moving from successfully resilient individual projects to lasting, widespread progress. 

Join the conversation in AIA’s Resilience and Disaster Response Community Hub to share best practices and learn from resilience leaders across the profession.

Kathleen M. O’Donnell is a freelance writer, editor, and communications strategist based in Washington, D.C. She is committed to telling stories that provide useful insights to architects and designers and highlight the impact of their work.