VIRTUAL Manchester Livable Cities
Abstract
London’s housing stock is increasingly exposed to summer overheating as rising temperatures intersect with an ageing residential fabric originally designed for cooler historical climates. In economically vulnerable communities, reliance on mechanical cooling or capital-intensive retrofit is often unrealistic, making households particularly susceptible to extreme heat events. While research on residential overheating has expanded in recent years, existing studies largely focus on building physics or technical mitigation strategies, paying less attention to how overheating risks are spatially distributed within socially vulnerable neighborhoods. In Victorian terrace housing, incremental loft conversions formed through resident-led adaptations are increasingly common, yet overheating risks are typically assessed at the dwelling scale, obscuring spatially concentrated heat exposure within specific rooms. This research examines incremental loft conversions in Victorian terrace housing in Barking, East London, an area characterised by socio-economic vulnerability. Drawing on occupant interviews and exploratory building performance simulation, the study investigates how loft spaces characterised by high solar gains, lightweight construction and constrained ventilation intensify overheating risk and evaluates the potential of low-cost passive strategies within these spaces. The results indicate that incremental loft rooms often function as thermally distinct environments, concentrating heat exposure relative to other rooms within the dwelling. In communities with limited adaptive capacity, such spatial concentration of heat stress may have direct implications for everyday comfort and well-being. The research argues that dwelling-scale overheating assessments risk masking intra-dwelling thermal inequalities and calls for more spatially sensitive approaches to residential heat resilience.
Guangyu Zhang is a graduate of the MSc Sustainable Environmental Design programme at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. He previously obtained a BEng in Civil Engineering from University College London. His research focuses on residential overheating, building environmental performance, and climate resilience in existing housing. His current work examines overheating risks in loft conversions in Victorian terrace housing within economically vulnerable communities in London.