Should heat be regulated?

We regulate buildings against fire, flooding, and structural failure, so why do we let heat slide? A recent article from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) asks a provocative question: what if heat was treated as something cities can govern, rather than an unavoidable condition we just have to endure?

The difficulty is that heat doesn’t stop at a property line. Our planning systems are designed to permit specific physical structures, not the microclimates those buildings create around them. Because ambient temperature becomes everyone’s problem, individual developments are rarely held accountable for the hot outdoor environments they leave behind.

Atlanta shows how cities can start shifting this mindset. Their Cool Roof Ordinance added solar-reflectance standards straight into the municipal building code, bringing heat mitigation into the formal permitting process. Its real value isn’t that cool roofs alone fix urban heat, but that it proves how a measurable aspect of thermal performance can become part of the rules that shape how we build.

That same principle could extend beyond roofs. Policy doesn’t need to micromanage every construction material; it just needs to treat thermal performance as a standard design outcome. This could mean setting clear expectations around preserving existing tree canopy, integrating shade, and limiting heat-retaining surfaces across outdoor spaces.

Ultimately, the tools and design strategies to cool our cities already exist. The real question is whether we are ready to make thermal performance a non-negotiable rule of how we build.

Read the full article from ASLA.