Assimilation of architectural and services design in early design modelling. How can buildings in a climate as varied as Australia's balance the best environmental comfort standards for their human occupants, cost and at the same time meet the urgent imperative of reduced energy consumption and associated carbon emissions? This practice-based research will develop tools to support more informed decision making in the earliest stage of an integral approach to services in the design of buildings. ....Assimilation of architectural and services design in early design modelling. How can buildings in a climate as varied as Australia's balance the best environmental comfort standards for their human occupants, cost and at the same time meet the urgent imperative of reduced energy consumption and associated carbon emissions? This practice-based research will develop tools to support more informed decision making in the earliest stage of an integral approach to services in the design of buildings. It will provide knowledge about designing architecture that is more environmentally responsive, can provide comfortable air in more optimised ways, that consume less energy and do this through promoting smarter use of information in practice.Read moreRead less
Natural and Artificial Lighting Control Energy and Visual Optimisation for a Low Energy Building. Artificial lighting is highlighted as the most significant area of opportunity to reduce energy as well as greenhouse emission. The application of intergrated daylight design together with artificial lighting control is researched. Control strategies of switching and dimming the artificial daylighting in conjunction with set-point levels, user preferences and daylighting maximisation are measured. T ....Natural and Artificial Lighting Control Energy and Visual Optimisation for a Low Energy Building. Artificial lighting is highlighted as the most significant area of opportunity to reduce energy as well as greenhouse emission. The application of intergrated daylight design together with artificial lighting control is researched. Control strategies of switching and dimming the artificial daylighting in conjunction with set-point levels, user preferences and daylighting maximisation are measured. The goal is to find the most effective saving strategies whilst maintaining visual comfortRead moreRead less
Demonstrating the feasibility of designing sustainable buildings using evolutionary systems. The design approach proposed in this research will result in two key areas of national benefit. First, the research will enable Australian built environment design professions to become more competitive in both domestic and international markets. There is a growing demand for environmentally-friendly buildings and the proposed design approach will enable Australian firms to be at the cutting edge of sust ....Demonstrating the feasibility of designing sustainable buildings using evolutionary systems. The design approach proposed in this research will result in two key areas of national benefit. First, the research will enable Australian built environment design professions to become more competitive in both domestic and international markets. There is a growing demand for environmentally-friendly buildings and the proposed design approach will enable Australian firms to be at the cutting edge of sustainable design. Second, the research will enable the Australian built environment to become more sustainable. The proposed approach will enable buildings to be designed that perform well, that are cost effective and that minimise their environmental impact. Read moreRead less
Challenging the inflexibility of the flexible digital model. Shared digital Building Information Models that link diverse heterogeneous information are beginning to show promising results in reducing the enormous fiscal and environmental cost of clashes, errors and rework caused by design and communication errors in construction. Model flexibility is a crucial factor in enacting the best design decisions at every stage while maintaining current shared information. But there are, as yet, no examp ....Challenging the inflexibility of the flexible digital model. Shared digital Building Information Models that link diverse heterogeneous information are beginning to show promising results in reducing the enormous fiscal and environmental cost of clashes, errors and rework caused by design and communication errors in construction. Model flexibility is a crucial factor in enacting the best design decisions at every stage while maintaining current shared information. But there are, as yet, no examples of comprehensive flexible building information modelling in Australia. This research builds on an Australian concentration of world class expertise to create new knowledge to overcome the obstacles. It will directly benefit the quality and cost of the Australian built environment.Read moreRead less
Open-plan Office Concepts Determine Effective Facilities Space Management. Open-plan layout is the most predominant work-setting and office designs are changing substantially towards this style. This research addresses the question, "How do open-plan attributes affect effective facilities space management." While this layout is increasingly adopted, no research has definitively answered this question or evaluated open-plan design for its usefulness. This research therefore aims to respond to thi ....Open-plan Office Concepts Determine Effective Facilities Space Management. Open-plan layout is the most predominant work-setting and office designs are changing substantially towards this style. This research addresses the question, "How do open-plan attributes affect effective facilities space management." While this layout is increasingly adopted, no research has definitively answered this question or evaluated open-plan design for its usefulness. This research therefore aims to respond to this question and establish reliable criteria for effective management and re-engineering of offices with open-plans. This research is novel and timely since it endeavours to develop new models and objective criteria to better exploit this concept for greater office performance and productivity.Read moreRead less
The Ageing of Aquarius: Designing new housing solutions for Australia's baby-boomers. The economically most powerful demographic group in Australian society is the relatively wealthy baby-boomer cohort as it enters a period of unprecedented and extended retirement activity. This period will create unique housing demands and require new insights into the nature of dwelling provision and preferences for this group. The housing industry is historically hampered by an inability to innovate and prov ....The Ageing of Aquarius: Designing new housing solutions for Australia's baby-boomers. The economically most powerful demographic group in Australian society is the relatively wealthy baby-boomer cohort as it enters a period of unprecedented and extended retirement activity. This period will create unique housing demands and require new insights into the nature of dwelling provision and preferences for this group. The housing industry is historically hampered by an inability to innovate and provide these types of solutions. This research will establish design-based methodologies and practices that would enable industry to discern and provide for the future housing needs of this group, and contribute to the development of innovation in the industry generally.Read moreRead less
Future Proofing Schools: using smart green integrated design approaches to prefabricated learning environments. This project draws on multi-disciplinary approaches to set the groundwork of major transformations of prefabricated classrooms, with the use of advanced materials, smart information systems embedded in the classrooms, better placement on sites, and use of more efficient construction techniques, allowing a transformation of this Australian industry. Our research will promote an innovati ....Future Proofing Schools: using smart green integrated design approaches to prefabricated learning environments. This project draws on multi-disciplinary approaches to set the groundwork of major transformations of prefabricated classrooms, with the use of advanced materials, smart information systems embedded in the classrooms, better placement on sites, and use of more efficient construction techniques, allowing a transformation of this Australian industry. Our research will promote an innovation culture and economy within the school and for future generations, and will have flow-on effects into promoting a healthy start to life in which smart, green, and educational imperatives are aligned. This will assist in strengthening Australia's social and economic fabric. Read moreRead less
Smart Green Schools: Educational and Environmental Outcomes of Innovation in School Building Design. The research touches upon many of the key National Research Priorities. Children spend a large proportion of their waking hours within a school environment. A healthy school environment which efficiently uses energy resources and information technology will help ' strengthen Australia's social economic fabric' in the longer term and support student engagement. Children's inhabitation of virtual s ....Smart Green Schools: Educational and Environmental Outcomes of Innovation in School Building Design. The research touches upon many of the key National Research Priorities. Children spend a large proportion of their waking hours within a school environment. A healthy school environment which efficiently uses energy resources and information technology will help ' strengthen Australia's social economic fabric' in the longer term and support student engagement. Children's inhabitation of virtual space as 'native' users of information rich 'frontier technologies' will be complemented by buildings acting as 3D textbooks educating children about an 'environmentally sustainable Australia' and providing feedback on design innovations intended to save 'water' and 'minimise environment impacts' on land and climate.Read moreRead less
From finger pointing to life saving: defining professional responsibility for health and safety in construction design. Specific duties for construction designers exist in the OHS legislation of several Australian jurisdictions. Thus far, the legislation has failed to act as a significant deterrent. The research addresses the empirically neglected question of how design OHS responsibility might be sensibly allocated in the context of industry practice. Hence it will: (1) highlight conceptual pro ....From finger pointing to life saving: defining professional responsibility for health and safety in construction design. Specific duties for construction designers exist in the OHS legislation of several Australian jurisdictions. Thus far, the legislation has failed to act as a significant deterrent. The research addresses the empirically neglected question of how design OHS responsibility might be sensibly allocated in the context of industry practice. Hence it will: (1) highlight conceptual problems inherent in existing legislation; (2) develop alternative mechanisms for allocating design OHS responsibility in the construction process; (3) provide the basis for policy development in the national priority area of hazard elimination in design; and (4) improve design OHS performance in construction and property sectors.Read moreRead less