Buro Happold, in collaboration with Dialog and the City of Toronto’s planning division, has pioneered a groundbreaking study to transform Toronto’s public spaces for extreme weather conditions.
The study focuses on creating official guidelines, impacting city planning policies, and potentially leading to new legislation. The initiative responds to the rising frequency and intensity of extreme heat days in Toronto. It aims to redefine the city’s “comfort guidelines,” influencing property development and emphasizing public health amidst rapid climate change.
The influential work goes beyond basic guidelines. Bing Wang, a senior building physicist at Buro Happold, notes the study’s significance in providing data-driven insights for effective urban interventions.
“This rigorous, analytical approach goes well beyond the very basic guidelines other cities have created to bring a data-driven approach to evaluating city conditions and the performance of interventions, such as shading, for example,” says Wang, who holds degrees from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and China’s Tsinghua University. “You can see which strategies are most effective, and how to prioritize them.”
The ongoing project, part of Toronto’s Heat Relief Strategy, prioritizes increased outdoor space usage, decreased heat-related illnesses, and improved mental and physical well-being. The research challenges conventional wisdom, revealing unexpected findings, such as the counterintuitive impact of fixed shading, such as canopies, which can cool daytime temperatures but lead to heat trapping at night.
Public surveys, stakeholder consultations, and detailed simulations informed by diverse city locations are shaping the study. Buro Happold and Dialog, currently in the third phase, share drafts with stakeholders, including the parks department, fostering community engagement.
The study’s unique approach assesses exterior thermal comfort and cold weather comfort, offering a blueprint for global urban climate hazard mitigation.
The Thermal Comfort Study’s progress can be tracked on Toronto’s official website.
