What Climate Change Means for Placemaking
Heat Waves Are the New Normal:
This Requires a Revolution in Placemaking
Released on 14th July, Bastille Day, the Met Office’s 2025 Annual Climate Assessment is a timely reminder that the values of liberté, égalité, and fraternité must now guide how we shape our cities. With the UK warming by at least 0.25°C per decade and the number of days with temperatures 10C above the average for 1961-1990 quadrupled in the last 10 years, placemaking must lead intentional change to protect people, nature and our shared planet.
Responsible governments and businesses recognise this warming trend is fuelling more frequent and intense heatwaves, heavy rainfall, and flooding. This risks our health and places unprecedented pressure on urban infrastructure and public spaces.
For the built environment professions, this is an urgent call to rise-up. Climate resilience must now be embedded into every place, public realm and highway project. That means designing spaces and routes that can cool cities during heatwaves, absorb and manage excess rainfall, and provide safe, inclusive environments year-round. Green infrastructure, such as tree canopies, rain gardens, and permeable surfaces must become standard, not optional. Equally important is designing our places so cycling and walking, EV infrastructure and public transport are fully prioritised in our cities.
Moreover, placemaking should foster climate literacy in its profession so the places we shape not only withstand change, they lead it by example.
Égalité demands that we design inclusive spaces that shield the most vulnerable from climate shocks. Fraternité calls for co-creation and genuine partnership-led responses to green spaces that cool, connect, and empower. And liberté means ensuring everyone has access to safe routes so we can choose to walk or cycle, our public realm is resilient, and government processes facilitate the delivery of accelerated change.
From tree canopies to permeable cycle routes, climate-conscious design is no longer optional. It is a civic duty.
