1.1b Housing Sustainability Performance

Climate variation, resource depletion and increasing urbanisation are converging global issues that are challenging the way we design, construct and operate buildings.

The residential construction sector faces multi-faceted issues affecting the delivery of more sustainable housing. This project will address barriers to the sustainability performance of Australia’s housing stock and the ability of the housing construction industry to provide high performance housing. This project will provide initial data on simulated thermal performance as designed, and actual performance as constructed, of a number of houses in subtropical and tropical Queensland. It will also provide some insight into the impact of housing sustainability performance on occupants.

The purpose of the project is to expand and deepen industry engagement and to develop further data to enhance and refine a re-submission of an ARC Linkage Project proposal in the next available ARC call for proposals:

Australian Housing 2025: Maximising the competitiveness of the residential construction sector and housing sustainability performance
This project will deliver:

Data on actual housing sustainability diagnostics of approximately 25 homes (Gold Coast / Brisbane and Townsville) including:

1. • Thermography and infiltration tests of above homes
   • Post-occupancy monitoring of thermal performance
   • Occupant surveys of thermal comfort
2. Simulated (predicted) building performance and actual indoor temperature performance
3. Literature review of maintenance of sustainability features in residential buildings, including low-carbon technologies suitable for multi-unit residential buildings.