Program overview | Projects Integrated Sustainable Housing Development [Yang, QUT] 2002-075-B Project participants and team members |  Jay Yang | Springfield | David Henry, Andrew Whitson | Qld Dept of Public Works | Michael Ball | CSIRO | Selwyn Tucker | Queensland University of Technology | Sarah Alder, John Bell, Jon Bunker, Nur Demirbilek, Paul den Ronden, Yin Foong, Jim Gall, Matthew Humphreys, Kame Khouzam, Peter Richards, Mark Thomson, Jay Yang- Project Leader. |
With a long term goal of promoting the integration of smart and sustainable features in Australian housing development, the DISCOVER project aims to bring together developers, builders, legislative authorities, construction training bodies, and university researchers and students to initiate, design, develop, and implement smart and sustainable housing on the basis of a residential housing infrastructure in subdivisions, instead of on an ad-hoc basis for stand-alone homes. It hopes to provide content for education and training opportunities that are outside of this project agreement, as well as to provide a computer based tool to aid the adoption of sustainable housing principles. The project will first begin with a scoping study based on literature review and user surveys, to establish desirable smart and sustainable housing design criteria based on alternative site options including sloping sites. A set of home performance indicators will also be established at this stage, with reference to previous research such as the Sustainable Subdivision projects. The design criteria will form the basis for an innovative design and construction competition for university students. The enhancement of winning entries, with reference to research findings of existing projects such as the QDPW Rockhampton (Research House), will form the design basis for the sustainable subdivision infrastructure and housing demonstration. The design will maximize the potential for integrated consideration of features of both intelligent and sustainable nature. Industry partners of this project will help commission the construction of such demonstration homes and infrastructure according to plan. While the demonstration homes are used for marketing and demonstration purposes, a variety of home performance testing, monitoring and analysis on key parameters such as energy rating, airflow and temperature, will be carried out. These test results and findings from development processes, such as decisions, options, building approvals, design alternatives, construction techniques, materials and home products selection, will be compiled and developed into a web based knowledge base of smart and sustainable housing infrastructure development. The environmental and economical impacts of decision-making, such as energy ratings and costing savings as result of insulation, will also be studied. The internet access to the knowledge base will give students, building trainees, home buyers as well as the general public an opportunity to focus on sustainability principles when pursuing urban housing infrastructure development. |
