California’s escalating wildfire crisis is forcing a radical rethink in residential architecture. With fires growing in intensity, frequency, and unpredictability, architects, planners, and policymakers are coming together to define a new blueprint for resilient, sustainable living in the wildland-urban interface. In May, I journeyed to Design Hardware for the Spring Design Thought Leadership Summit, something we do four times a year at Design Hardware to delve into trending ideas and concepts bubbling up through the design and architecture community. After hosting these events for over 6-years at Design Hardware, I always come away with a fresh perspective on emerging ideas and this time was no exception. The idea this time was to isolate the concepts and ideas that are needed now to address climate change, specifically fire related issues and develop them into actionable strategies for building—and rebuilding—homes in fire-prone areas.
The day was broken down into two parts. The first was specifically about fire-related building issues discussed during a panel featuring architect Greg Chasen of Chasen Architects and Ben Stapleton and Becky Feldman of the USGBC-CA. The second panel covered Market and supply chain issues being affected by both a surge in demand due to rebuilding and exacerbated by the on-again-off-again tariffs. That program will be published here as well so check back for publication.
This panel covers a lot. Thank you Becky, Ben and Greg for taking part and helping move the ball forward with such a challenging and difficult subject.
PANEL

Thank you Becky, Greg and Ben. More conversations like this will ultimately make California’s shelter industry stronger and more resilient. Please check the show notes for links to the speakers and other resources associate with this talk. Thank you Michele Solomons and Avi Balsam with Design Hardware for hosting these conversations and making them available. That is part of their commitment to the design and architecture community. If you enjoy what you hear, subscribe to the show so you receive each new episode automatically to your podcast feed. You can also join in the conversation on Instagram @DesignHardwareandFlooring. Thanks for listening, see you next time.