Year: 2022

This paper addresses our need to shift to a net-zero (zero-carbon) lifestyle. It begins by considering how public space can contribute to this and what other cities are doing about it. A case is then made for a community-based participatory approach, as it will empower people within the process of climate change mitigation. The results…

Cities are where we need to begin solving global and local urban challenges by changing how we approach urban management, planning and design. Academic research, like the smart city field, currently focuses more on informing urban policy-makers than city-building practitioners such as architects, urban planners and designers, and engineers. These professions directly affect urban fabric,…

Globally, there is an increased incidence of dementia correlated with aging populations and growing efforts toward diagnosis. This effort is accompanied by a movement to create more therapeutic built environments for people living with dementia to help promote a better quality of life. Due to the complex implications and consequences of this population’s visual and…

This paper aims to assess the housing needs and conditions of the city population, particularly in the central business district (CBD), as a pre-requisite for design intervention towards urban resiliency and enhanced quality of life. In the southern part of the Philippines, a comprehensive study was conducted in Davao City on urban dwellers’ view towards…

Building retrofit has become a leading sustainable action in the built environment and is expected to deliver the most energy savings by 2050. However, an Energy Performance Gap (EPG) has been identified in literature and practice related to occupant behaviour. Although links between EPG and occupant behaviour are being increasingly investigated, a lack of mixed-method…

The paper reports on research to identify a reliable tool to take account of thermal bridging. This will allow designers to evaluate the performance of timber-framed construction and the potential for internal surface mould growth. The Isothermal Planes method required by New Zealand Building Code Clause E3/AS1 to avoid internal moisture is too simplistic, therefore…

Remote accommodation in tropical Australia is often characterised by poor thermal performance and enormous energy costs when mechanical cooling systems are installed. Fish River Station, located in the Northern Territory, features a series of bala balas; tent-like structures to host aboriginal rangers working on-site, offering only a roof to shed beds from the rain and…

Walking is known to be a healthy and sustainable way of moving about the city, particularly in comparison with motorised forms of transport. For these and other reasons, there is a growing interest amongst urban planners and policy makers in enhancing conditions for walkers. Growing the number of people walking makes sense from the perspectives…

Resource circularity has become a necessity in the built environment sector. A significant amount of construction and demolition (C&D) waste is generated worldwide. This waste results from poor resource efficiency in the sector. Australia is among the lowest-ranked countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) regarding the sector’s resource efficiency. A circular…

With the increasing area covered and the number of people served by subways due to rapid urbanization, air quality in subway stations on the health of passengers and staff has received increasing attention from society and scholars. In previous studies, the removal and control of underground pollutants have mainly focused on the indoor air conditioning…

Urban space quality is the core research target of the Chinese urbanisation project. This is a positional paper, using a brief historical perspective of the progress of Chinese urban design, and a current problematic in Chinese smart-city platforms to foreground future studies in urban quality using open-source platforms and technology. Traditional research and design methods…

This paper explores simulation-based envelope performance improvements for typical low-quality dwellings in southern Australia. Australia has over 7.6 million detached private dwellings 2005-2006 data reported there were 6.3 million detached dwellings by 2005. Most of these were built prior to the 2003 national energy efficiency regulations. Pre-2003 dwellings are a significant concern as a high…

The global sustainability movement has developed a variety of new design and building methodologies. Regenerative Design (RD) focuses on understanding the dynamic relationship between people, a place and ecosystems. By weaving together the natural and social systems, RD maximises humans’ and nature’s creativeness and abundance. Projects are not seen as an end product but rather…

This paper presents preliminary findings from a Post Occupancy Evaluation research of a BREEAM excellence-rated university building, to understand the experience of the students using university study spaces under a post-pandemic teaching and learning context. The research uses a combined qualitative and quantitative method and focuses on occupancy patterns, thermal comfort, air quality, noise and…

The physical environment can considerably influence the efficiency and functionalities of facilities and spaces. Some recent studies examining schools’ efficiency consider several factors such as human capital, parents’ socioeconomic background, perceptions of teachers and parents towards schools, and financial status. However, very few studies have investigated the influences of schools’ physical environment and facilities on…

New Zealand housing faces a health and affordability crisis. Our existing housing stock is cold, draughty, and prone to dampness and mould. New houses are being built far below similar climate standards worldwide, and recent New Zealand Building Code Clause H1 amendments do not increase our standards to those comparable climate standards. In addition, current…

Building performance simulation tools provide a unique opportunity to evaluate solar architectural principles during the most influential early stages of the design process. Solar shade devices are typically designed with the intent to reduce solar penetration where possible, improving thermal performance and visual comfort for occupants within the indoor environment. In the case of patient…

Despite recent advances in thermal comfort research and conditioning technology, providing thermal comfort in office buildings still faces several difficulties resulting in discomfort, reduced occupant efficiency, and increased energy use. This problem is most acute in perimeter zones, which are highly valued, because of the high level of visual comfort, but also are strongly influenced…

A net zero city can be developed precinct by precinct through focussing on precincts around electric mid-tier transit along main road corridors. These are outlined through steps that enable broader design goals to be fulfilled as well as showing how technological innovation fits into precincts. Keywords: NetZero, precincts, planning, transport.

Australian Local Government Areas (LGA) failure to compensate their 30% urban tree canopy benchmark depletion: leading to hotter treeless medium density suburbs. This paper presents an Optimal Residential Tree arrangement (ORTa) concept for technical policy guideline updates, as an effective pioneer energy–efficient approach. ORTa is a multi-criteria sustainability framework promoting tree inclusion, deep soil management,…

Two ‘live’ community projects – designed and fabricated in a Masters of Architecture unit – integrate incrementally formed aluminium components into digitally fabricated building systems. Incremental Sheet Forming (ISF) deforms sheet material into three-dimensional forms through pressure imparted by a robot-held tool. Form and patterning are derived from numerically controlled toolpaths. The projects, a cocktail…

It is often believed that green infrastructure assets are net carbon sinks and this may have contributed to the lack of consideration of embodied greenhouse gas emissions by landscape architects. However, these embodied emissions cannot be ignored. This paper aims to demonstrate the significance of life cycle greenhouse gas emissions in park design and the…

The primary building performance assessing factor for large and complex buildings such as hospitals is the safety of its occupants during emergencies such as fire. Previous research had identified multiple factors in the architectural design of fire emergency evacuations at hospitals. However, globally, fatalities have resulted from fire accidents in hospitals indicating that more factors…

In India, Industrialization had its beginnings in its colonial history. Several industrial campuses were established in coastal, or riverine belts due to the presence of water as a resource, and for ease of transportation. Such industrial centres as anchor points have witnessed the growth of these urban cores in the decades since, affecting riparian health…