GZS Dictionary of Important Terms: Passive Survivability

Source: Alex Steffen of WorldChanging.com

Passive survivability is the idea that in an age of increasing climate instability and Wexelblat disasters, it is part of the design brief of a good building to make sure that its inhabitants can survive outages in services (especially power), and that the best way to make sure buildings promote survival is to build them full of systems which don't need as much electricity, tap water, etc. in the first place.

Passive survivability can be achieved by incorporating the sustainable design features that have been so actively promoted by the green building community: cooling-load avoidance strategies, capabilities for natural ventilation, a highly efficient thermal envelope, passive solar gain, and natural daylighting. Indeed, these measures are so important that they may need to be incorporated into building codes. Buildings can go even further with features such as generating and storing photovoltaic electricity and collecting and storing rainwater....