Heatwaves are becoming a problem of urban governance and public health. They affect both the buildings where people live and the areas outside them.
Bucharest illustrates the tensions between development pressures and the need to keep the green infrastructure of the city. At the same time, while existing parks and vacant green areas have increasingly come under pressure from real-estate development, existing buildings cannot cope with prolonged solar exposure and rising temperatures. A well-insulated building, if poorly designed for summer conditions, can trap solar heat and lead to overheating.
Author’s Insights:
“The Urban Heat Island effect means that cities are consistently warmer than rural areas. Concrete, asphalt, steel and glass absorb large amounts of solar radiation during the day and slowly release it overnight, preventing cities from cooling at night. Heat is also distributed unevenly within cities, where neighborhoods lacking sufficient green spaces experience greater thermal discomfort. In this context, air conditioning is seen as the immediate solution to overheating, but it risks reinforcing the phenomenon and putting pressure on the energy system.
Bucharest cannot afford to wait any longer. While the city continues to lose its green infrastructure, Romania still lacks a systematic framework for assessing summer overheating in buildings. As extreme heat becomes a structural challenge, measures that look beyond the immediate response are needed. Bucharest must move towards planning that protects its green spaces while also introducing building standards to be used for designing and adapting buildings to limit overheating.”
– Andrada Lupulescu
For or further details and media inquiries, please contact Andrada Lupulescu: andrada.lupulescu@epg-thinktank.org
