Architecture, Building and Planning - Research Publications
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ItemNo Preview AvailableEnvironmental Experience Design Features of Libraries as Third Places: Examining Drivers for Social Engagement among Older Adults in Victoria(Osaka Public University Academic Extension Center, 2024-02-24)Active aging is important to older adults through social engagement with others and connection with the community. Social engagement aligns with the concept of ‘third place’ which is defined as ‘a social infrastructure in a public setting for informal gatherings’, such as library, park, and commercial places. In this project, three libraries in Victoria were selected as case studies for addressing the research question of identifying factors of third places that support active aging for social engagement in Victoria. Through qualitative observational study and quantitative questionnaire survey, this study has identified the key factors that motivate older adults to visit the library for social interaction, which are: user-friendly service with nice and friendly staff, location, accessibility, safety, visual connectivity and wayfinding. Based on the findings, libraries serve as an important third place among older adults in Victoria.
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ItemAffordable Heating System Exploration for a Net Zero Energy Experimental Home in Melbourne, Australia(ZEMCH Network, 2022-01-07)This research explores affordable heating for hydronic systems of a net zero energy experiment home built in Melbourne, Australia. For this research purpose, a 3m-wide 6m-long outbuilding is built next to a backyard garage. Inexpensive 12mm-dia poly tubes are spaced 100mm inside the 55mm-thick tiled concrete which rests on 100mmT (R2.5 m2·K/W) recycled cold-room panels laid on ground. This hydronic floor and ground is insulated from the outdoors by 400mm-deep 40mm-thick (R1 m2·K/W) polystyrene. Simulations show that heating this hydronic floor by a vertical ground heat exchanger with 17°C bottom temperature, together with a hydronic wall radiator heated by 30 evacuated tubes and a 2-cubic meter thermal storage, the indoors could reach the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) respective night and day heating thermostats of 15°C and 20°C across winter. This assumes that the indoor had been at NatHERS temperatures for 5-6 years for the temperature at the bottom surface of the floor to stabilize. Since this warmup period has not been met, the results in this paper show the temperatures with water heated by a sawdust/wood burner. An experiment was also conducted with a compost pile. Two months after its initial 1-month exothermic phase, the temperature at the center was still 32°C. Thus, compost piles will be located outside external walls to help keep the perimeter of the floor warm. To obtain affordable hot water for the indoors to reach 20°C, a 6m-long 750mm-wide flat-belt collector was boxed up and covered with glass. In late autumn, it could only heat water by only 1-2°C and was thus not used in winter. However, by late spring, the empty poly belt had melted, indicating that, the temperature under the glass had reached above 50°C. Typical meteorological year data shows that the solar radiation has tripled that in autumn. Therefore, for future winter experiments, the weak solar radiation would be concentrated, by say, a north-facing parabolic trough with an aperture three times the area of a glazed metallic collector.
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ItemExploration of Current Builders’ Capacities to Deliver Zero Energy Buildings in China(ZEMCH Network, 2022-01-07)To strengthen the global fight against climate change, China pledges to reach carbon neutrality by 2060. As one of the major energy consumption sectors in China, the building industry’s role in CO2 emission reductions is critical to the successful pursuit of the carbon neutrality goal. The concept of zero energy buildings (ZEBs) has gained increasing attention in China due to its effective efforts on energy saving and emission reduction. The objectives of this research are to investigate current builders’ capacities for delivering ZEBs in China, to explore the differences in design and construction capacities of conventional and ZEB builders in China, and to assess the potentials of boosting Chinese builders' capacities for delivering ZEBs in the future. The research methods embrace several steps. Firstly, a checklist was developed based on the literature review to assess Chinese builders’ capacities to deliver ZEBs. Secondly, relationships between different checklist questions were analyzed using association rule in software SPSS modeler. Thirdly, builders were clustered using TwoStep Cluster Analysis in software SPSS modeler. The findings of this research suggest that most Chinese builders, even ZEB builders have insufficient ZEB design and construction knowledge. ZEB demonstration projects are mainly developed in cooperation with foreign professional institutions. Moreover, conventional builders are less competitive than ZEB builders in passive design capacity, energy efficient building design capacity, renewable energy generation capacity and research capacity, which are the key skills that conventional builders are supposed to improve. Furthermore, one-third of conventional builders have NZEBs or ULEBs production experience. They have acquired related ZEB delivery capacities and they are the most likely ZEB builders in the future.
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ItemExploration of Human-Centered Mass Customisation and Personalisation Potentials for Flood Shelter Evolution in Australia(ZEMCH Network, 2022-01-07)Natural disasters have always plagued human life. Due to the global warming caused by frequent occurrence of floods, it has brought immeasurable impacts on politics, economy and human life. The relevant technology and development of post-disaster reconstruction and the physical and psychological humanitarian assistance to the disaster-affected population have been paid more and more attention by the governments and organizations of various countries. At present, with the development of science and technology, mass customisation has been widely used in the construction market. However, there is insufficient theoretical or practical research on post-flood mass customized reconstruction based on the needs and demands of the affected population and buildings. Therefore, this paper will focus on Australia's flood issues and to clarify the lack of “customisability” of today’s post-flood shelter to accommodate human needs and demands for health, well-being, inclusiveness and affordability and stress the mass customisation and personalisation potentials to the improvement. Furthermore, this paper will explore a research framework by introducing human-centered mass customization to post-flood housing design under the theoretical research of mass-customisation and occupants’ needs and demands. In detail, according to the study of post-flooding issues and current protecting shelter in Australia, a clear housing and occupants’ needs and demands could be quantified. Then, deducing a conceivable research framework to emphasize the relationship between human needs with theories of human-centered mass customisation and personalisation based on these advantages in post-disaster housing reconstruction.
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ItemIndoor Air Quality Vulnerability Mapping of Urban Dwellings in Bangladesh(ZEMCH Network, 2022-01-07)Unwanted summer, extreme heat waves and air pollution have created severe human health and well-being issues. For instance, in Bangladesh, these phenomena have been noticed, particularly between March to July. As opposed to the norm, the dwellings' indoor air quality (IAQ) tends to be unacceptable, resulting in a severe impact on human health. Current research identified that the number of heatstroke patients increases every year in the tropical region where the children and elderly are being affected severely. Besides the IAQ issue, local housing is responsible for the relatively high energy use through space cooling in the tropical region for ensuring indoor thermal comfort and air quality. IAQ enhancement in line with energy efficiency measures through passive design strategies is becoming a significant challenge in the housing sector. Thus, this study investigates the IAQ-related issues around typical urban apartment dwellings in Bangladesh's major cities as case studies. The transient data to monitor the levels of TVOC (mg/m3), PM2.5 (μg/m3), PM10 (μg/m3), HCHO (mg/m3), air temperature (oC) as well as relative humidity (%) were collected using environmental data loggers. At the same time, a questionnaire survey related to occupants' socio-demographic profile, health and well-being was also conducted to grasp their living conditions. Finally, in line with the data analysis, a parametric simulation was conducted to develop a correlational vulnerability mapping between the collated IAQ results and the occupants' health and well-being circumstances.
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ItemReview of the existing energy policies and challenges of energy consumption to achieve a sustainable behavioural change among Iranian households(Smart Villages Lab (SVL), The University of Melbourne, 2021)The growing number of household subscribers have resulted in high energy demands leading to wrong energy consumption patterns in Iran. As a result, power supply has failed to fully meet energy demands in housing sector, causing unplanned recurring blackouts. Although government has endeavoured to propose supply-side initiatives for energy conservation, achieving energy efficiency required further investigations in terms of demand-side to include households’ energy consumption behaviour. Various interventions and energy use models were proposed to analyse demand-side approaches to change households’ energy related behaviour, however, the incidental nature of behaviour has caused unsustainable change over a longer period of time. This issue necessitates more value-based strategies aiming to reduce peak load time’s electricity consumption to achieve a more sustainable behaviour change. This entails new perspective in intervention strategies rather than punishments or monetary or environment-related motivations. The notion of changing lifestyles may impact wrong energy consumption patterns, which can be related to daily habitual life routines. Therefore, consumption may not solely address households’ basic needs, but includes perceived values. This research will emphasise the need to develop strategies based on households' values and beliefs in terms of their well-being to be nudged towards more energy saving activities. It aims to focus on the important role of households’ values on choosing their daily life activities to be used as an effective reward for a more energy efficient consumption pattern. This research suggests well-being related activities to sustain the change in households’ energy consumption habits as well as achieving energy efficiency as a reward
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ItemResearch Methods to Investigate Occupants’ Domestic Environmental Experiences for EXD Framework(Smart Villages Lab, The University of Melbourne, 2020-12-21)Occupant has holistic experiences in their domestic environments that may affect their health and wellbeing. Nowadays, various research methods are conducting to explore occupants' psychological issues in their living environments. Thus, occupants' domestic environmental experiences need to be examined into architectural design decisions to enhance their health and wellbeing. This study's primary objective is to explore the research methods to investigate occupants' environmental experiences in their domestic living. In this study, relevant literature reviews have been conducted to understand the research methods of exploring occupants' environmental experiences. A series of qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches (mixed-mode) have been considered to triangulate the correlation between occupants' subjective experiences and their wellbeing (i.e., comfortable feeling). Through these research methods, the correlation between environmental design factor (DF), spatial factor (SF) and user context (UC) have been explored in occupants' domestic settings. Structured questionnaire surveys, semi-structured interviews and photo survey techniques have been considered to explore occupants' domestic environmental experience (EXD). For the statistical data interpretations and correlational analysis, the 'Pearson' and 'Association Rules (Apriori)' algorithms have been identified for data mining using SPSS statistics. NVivo will be utilised for the content analysis and image coding to clarify the relationship between DF, SF and UC of occupants according to different domestic environments. Moreover, this methodological approach to exploring occupants' domestic environmental experiences may help develop the notion of domestic 'Environmental Experience Design (EXD)' framework.