Efficient construction: analysis of integrated supply chains for innovative off site housing manufacturing. The Australian housing industry is failing to meet demand. Housing construction is too slow, as indicated by a 40 per cent increase in average construction time over the last fifteen years. Industry fragmentation is an oft-cited cause of construction inefficiency. A solution is offsite manufacturing. Australia lags other countries in adoption of off-site manufacturing. To achieve adoption ....Efficient construction: analysis of integrated supply chains for innovative off site housing manufacturing. The Australian housing industry is failing to meet demand. Housing construction is too slow, as indicated by a 40 per cent increase in average construction time over the last fifteen years. Industry fragmentation is an oft-cited cause of construction inefficiency. A solution is offsite manufacturing. Australia lags other countries in adoption of off-site manufacturing. To achieve adoption and diffusion, fragmentation needs to be addressed. This project aims to analyse the factors affecting supply chain integration to support innovative offsite manufacturing and develop a novel collaborative practice based implementation model.Read moreRead less
Assessment of structural integrity and deterioration of masonry walls. Brickwork for housing and medium-rise buildings is a traditional material, also much used for modern construction, with aesthetic appeal and modest cost. However, building regulators and others are increasingly concerned about evidence of slow building deterioration, particularly of older buildings. This increases public safety risks, even under normal conditions and more so under high winds or earthquake-induced ground-shaki ....Assessment of structural integrity and deterioration of masonry walls. Brickwork for housing and medium-rise buildings is a traditional material, also much used for modern construction, with aesthetic appeal and modest cost. However, building regulators and others are increasingly concerned about evidence of slow building deterioration, particularly of older buildings. This increases public safety risks, even under normal conditions and more so under high winds or earthquake-induced ground-shaking. This project will help address this issue. It will obtain unbiased evidence of typical masonry building deterioration. It will couple this with mathematical modelling and state-of-the-art non-destructive visual and dynamic techniques to develop tools for making fast, low-cost practical building risk assessments.Read moreRead less
Open Standards design for improved road network information exchange. Open Standards design for improved road network information exchange. This project aims to design a draft digital open source performance-based construction contract specification for delivering road construction information to operational network asset management. This will be a common information exchange specification for all road agencies to standardise exchange of their assets data. Road network construction and maintenan ....Open Standards design for improved road network information exchange. Open Standards design for improved road network information exchange. This project aims to design a draft digital open source performance-based construction contract specification for delivering road construction information to operational network asset management. This will be a common information exchange specification for all road agencies to standardise exchange of their assets data. Road network construction and maintenance costs $21 billion annually, but the outcome of this project is expected to save $65 to $130 million annually through data harmonisation. This project is at the leading edge of information management for roads and is expected to change several international standards.Read moreRead less
Housing energy efficiency transitions. This project aims to provide an analysis of housing retrofit and its links with household energy costs. It includes householders across eight global urban sites, as well as the businesses that supply retrofit services. The project will analyse the retrofit experience of both energy poor and other households, providing an internationally significant evidence base. Outcomes include a robust empirical evidence base on the implications of retrofit for househol ....Housing energy efficiency transitions. This project aims to provide an analysis of housing retrofit and its links with household energy costs. It includes householders across eight global urban sites, as well as the businesses that supply retrofit services. The project will analyse the retrofit experience of both energy poor and other households, providing an internationally significant evidence base. Outcomes include a robust empirical evidence base on the implications of retrofit for households to tailor actions that will shape the lives of residents in Australian households.Read moreRead less
Bridge performance assessment through advanced sensing and modelling. Bridge performance assessment through advanced sensing and modelling. This project aims to create cyber infrastructure to manage and maintain civil infrastructure, specifically bridges. Current sensor data interpretation approaches are not good at assessing the performance of civil infrastructure or evaluating the reserve capacity; in particular, they do not adequately account for high levels of systematic modelling uncertaint ....Bridge performance assessment through advanced sensing and modelling. Bridge performance assessment through advanced sensing and modelling. This project aims to create cyber infrastructure to manage and maintain civil infrastructure, specifically bridges. Current sensor data interpretation approaches are not good at assessing the performance of civil infrastructure or evaluating the reserve capacity; in particular, they do not adequately account for high levels of systematic modelling uncertainties. This project intends to ease the current scientific data interpretation bottleneck. Expected outcomes are better infrastructure management and maintenance planning, fewer redundant interventions, modified infrastructure and improved future design.Read moreRead less
Co-Design Guide for Transforming Ageing Apartment Buildings. The project aims to unlock the redevelopment potential of ageing apartment housing by developing a co-design process to enable transformative redesign to become a mainstream redevelopment option in partnership with leaders in the emerging practices of transformative redesign. The outcomes will be a conceptual framework and practical guide to realise sustainable housing futures beyond demolition. This will benefit the Australian environ ....Co-Design Guide for Transforming Ageing Apartment Buildings. The project aims to unlock the redevelopment potential of ageing apartment housing by developing a co-design process to enable transformative redesign to become a mainstream redevelopment option in partnership with leaders in the emerging practices of transformative redesign. The outcomes will be a conceptual framework and practical guide to realise sustainable housing futures beyond demolition. This will benefit the Australian environment, economy and society by changing thinking around sustainable delivery of housing, creating new industries and services in the construction sector, and facilitating the effective transformation of old buildings into attractive spaces that add value for residents, neighbourhoods and cities.Read moreRead less
Decarbonising built environments with hempcrete and green wall technology. This project aims to develop an integrated prefabricated building panel solution combining green wall and hempcrete technology to address environmental problems associated with the usage of carbon intensive construction materials, dense urbanisation, climate change and biodiversity. Innovation in hempcrete technology consist in using low carbon options including alkali-activated binders and biomineralization technology, g ....Decarbonising built environments with hempcrete and green wall technology. This project aims to develop an integrated prefabricated building panel solution combining green wall and hempcrete technology to address environmental problems associated with the usage of carbon intensive construction materials, dense urbanisation, climate change and biodiversity. Innovation in hempcrete technology consist in using low carbon options including alkali-activated binders and biomineralization technology, glass waste replacing natural sand. Hempcrete green wall panels will be design to be carbon positive, improve the thermal performance of buildings, provide better acoustic insolation, reduce the risk of mould proliferation, control indoor humidity and air quality and improve indoor thermal comfort.
Read moreRead less
Making Australia resilient to airborne infection transmission. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that basic questions regarding how to minimise the risk of airborne infection transmission for any respiratory viruses remain unanswered, despite their frequency and huge social and economic costs. Therefore, this project aims to expand scientific knowledge and develop practical tools to improve the resilience of Australian indoor environments against airborne transmission of respiratory viruses. T ....Making Australia resilient to airborne infection transmission. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that basic questions regarding how to minimise the risk of airborne infection transmission for any respiratory viruses remain unanswered, despite their frequency and huge social and economic costs. Therefore, this project aims to expand scientific knowledge and develop practical tools to improve the resilience of Australian indoor environments against airborne transmission of respiratory viruses. The outcomes of the project conducted by a multidisciplinary international team of collaborators will include: (i) quantitative knowledge on virus-laden aerosols from human expiration; and (ii) exposure and infection risk models and their application to typical indoor building and transport scenarios.Read moreRead less
Constructing Building Integrity: Raising standards through professionalism. This project aims to investigate the role of professions in rebuilding trust in residential building construction in Australia. In the wake of expensive and life-threatening building defects, this project expects to generate new knowledge about the functioning of individual professionals, professionals employed in multi-profession organisations, and professionals’ interaction with their institutional environment. Expecte ....Constructing Building Integrity: Raising standards through professionalism. This project aims to investigate the role of professions in rebuilding trust in residential building construction in Australia. In the wake of expensive and life-threatening building defects, this project expects to generate new knowledge about the functioning of individual professionals, professionals employed in multi-profession organisations, and professionals’ interaction with their institutional environment. Expected outcomes include practical recommendations for improved professional standards, a rigorous building integrity system and a means for measuring change. Anticipated benefits include greater awareness by professions, trades and regulators of their role in in delivering the public goods of a trustworthy construction industry.Read moreRead less