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While contract housing's biggest contribution has been towards affordability one of the negative impacts has been the lack of relationship to the site, particularly in terms of solar orientation. Overcoming this issue of orientation is one of the biggest challenges we face in our attempt to deliver more comfortable and environmentally sensitive housing designs in the 'project home' market. A customer selects a contract house from our range and we build it on their block. If the house is compatible with the block the customer gets the desired outcome. If not, the result is a compromise where large amounts of energy must be injected to achieve the required level of comfort. A correctly oriented design not only reduces energy use, but also improves the liveability for the occupants. 
During the period we set about addressing this challenge by developing a house design that can provide maximum comfort and energy efficiency, regardless of the direction it is orientated on a block. This is achieved by providing (beneficial) solar access into the house at different times of the day and for different seasons as well as good cross ventilation. This not only reduces environmental impact and consequently operating costs, but it also greatly enhances the liveability of the space. The focus of the design was:
and involved collaboration with product manufacturers and suppliers to identify opportunities for improvement and cost savings. We also engaged experts from the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) to review and contribute to our in-house designs and comment on their overall consistency with our objectives. The first house in the series, which we're calling the "smart series" has been through a comprehensive design development and market research phase and will be released to the market in 2007. |
