Hazard-specific design
Flood, cyclone, seismic, heat, or fire response.
Focus — Housing, Materials & the Built Environment — Climate-resilient construction
CLIMATE-RESILIENT CONSTRUCTION
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve how buildings withstand climate hazards for the households and institutions occupying the buildings.
Why this area
CLIMATE-RESILIENT CONSTRUCTION
IN CONTEXT.
The hazard is local and specific. Ideas qualify when they name it precisely and show what the building does differently as a result.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Strengthening
Improving existing buildings against known risk.
Siting
Where not to build, and how that is decided.
Codes & approval
Getting resilient methods accepted and inspected.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A CLIMATE-RESILIENT CONSTRUCTION
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where how buildings withstand climate hazards fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — damage in an event, cost of strengthening, or insurance and approval status.
- Explains what the households and institutions occupying the buildings do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of how buildings withstand climate hazards in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier post-disaster reconstruction programmes did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the households and institutions occupying the buildings, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — buildings strengthened or built in an exposed location.
- A stated measure of success — damage in an event, cost of strengthening, or insurance and approval status.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves safety, losses avoided, and continuity after an event for the households and institutions occupying the buildings.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named local authority, builder, or community body able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of how buildings withstand climate hazards in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the households and institutions occupying the buildings or the local authority, builder, or community body.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about climate-resilient construction with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
CLIMATE-RESILIENT CONSTRUCTION IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about how buildings withstand climate hazards that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.