EcoHome – Sustainability and innovation in housing developments
This research project will investigate the sustainability outcomes that are possible in outer suburban project homes using current building and design technologies, and the barriers to the uptake of these technologies more broadly in outer suburban project home developments. The outcomes will include a critically needed decision support tool to help the industry to meet regulatory requirements for more sustainable housing. The project is strongly supported by a consortium of industry partners including VicUrban, Metricon Homes, Building Commission, Origin Energy, City West Water, Melbourne Water, Sustainable Energy Authority of Victoria and Hassell Architects.
Project Descriptions
The individual research projects within this cluster include:
- The uptake of sustainable houses in the volume housing industry – Fiona Martin
- Assessing the long term environmental performance of the EcoHome – Syed Mohammad Shafiqur Rahman
The uptake of sustainable houses in the volume housing industry
Researcher: Fiona Martin
Fiona’s project looks exploring how volume housing builders are moving towards sustainable building practice. Fiona is using several large volume builders, who in one way or other have demonstrated leadership in sustainable housing within their sector, as case studies to explore how they have adopted more sustainable practice and what barriers they have encountered. The case studies are Metricon, Henley and Australand. Fiona will interview a number of different staff representing various facets of the construction industry (for example, builders, managers, marketers and sales staff etc) to obtain a wide variety of perspectives.
Assessing the long term environmental performance of the EcoHome
Researcher: Syed Mohammad Shafiqur Rahman
Syed’s project will use the data collected from the monitoring equipment installed in the EcoHome in order to assess its environmental performance. He will use software developed by Fluent in order to map the thermal modelling of the house. Syed will use the data that has been collected since the house’s construction, and will continue to collect data while the house is occupied for the next two years. His project will involve extrapolating this data in order to assess its environmental performance over the next 10-20 years.
For further information:
Centre for Design – further information on the EcoHome project
Metricon EcoHome Brochure – for more information on the environmental features in the EcoHome