From yoghurt to luxury sails: how to shade your home from supercharged UK heatwaves

When graphic designer Marc Alabaster had a new set of glass doors installed at his West Sussex home eight years ago, he soon realised how they magnified the heat of the afternoon sun. “The kitchen was 40-plus degrees,” he said. Then he went on holiday to Spain and saw an apartment building wrapped in louvre-like rows of angled fins or blades that shaded the external walls against the sun. “I was like, ‘that’s fantastic’,” said Alabaster. He asked around and discovered the term brise-soleil, which he had never heard before. “It’s French for sun-breaker,” he said. Brise-soleil installed on the British embassy building in Sana’a, Yemen. Photograph: Peter Cook-VIEW/Alamy Alabaster now owns Brise Soleil UK, which has found a market among homeowners looking for ways of boosting shade around their properties, especially over large windows and glass doors. The climate crisis is bringing more and more supercharged heatwaves to the UK. This week, some people have taken to sticking cardboard or reflective materials to their windows – or even smearing them with yoghurt – after the Met Office issued a rare red weather warning . But more permanent solutions are available, too, ranging from the affordable to the luxurious. Most UK homes don’t have external shading, according to the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE). But it’s not only residential properties that are affected. …