Abstract
With increasing pressure to ensure that sustainability features in homes are commercially viable, demonstration projects are vital to highlight the real-world challenges and opportunities for innovation. This paper documents the incorporation of sustainability objectives into the “East Village at Knutsford” residential “living laboratory” development, within the Knutsford urban regeneration precinct, approximately 1.5 km east of the Fremantle central business district in Western Australia. The sustainability objectives for the project include being a “Net Zero Energy Development” using 100% renewable energy and maximizing the self-supply of energy, reducing mains water consumption as much as is practical, and using the landscape design to complement these objectives without compromising a best-practice urban greening outcome. The paper documents the design initiatives and strategies that have been included to achieve these objectives in a commercially viable project and the results of modelling where it has been used to test the design against the objectives to ensure their validity. The key features that have been incorporated into the townhouses component of the development are outlined, illustrating integrated design and systems thinking that builds on previous demonstration projects, incorporating solar energy storage and electric vehicle charging plus significant mains water savings by adopting water-sensitive features in the homes and the within the private and public gardens. The expected grid energy and mains water consumption levels in the homes through modelling compared to the metropolitan average is 80% lower. The project is presented as an important step in the application of available technologies and design features to meet stated sustainability objectives, highlighting the benefits of an embedded living laboratory research approach.
Highlights
The call from the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for cities to be carbon neutral and the integration of nature-based solutions to improve environmental health, urban amenity and community wellbeing can be demonstrated through innovative case study projects in our cities; some Australian examples are highlighted in the literature [3]
Approaches to efficient and sustainable uses of water in homes can be addressed through Water-Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) principles [18,19]
Sustainable urbanism, energy efficient homes, smart cities, WSUD and infill projects have been demonstrated through experimental intervention projects termed “living laboratories” [8,24,25]
Summary
With increasing pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions around the world, the built environment has a large role to play, as highlighted through the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) [1]. The performance of these systems can be varied, based on factors such as the performance PV panels, the household demand, onsite shading and local climatic factors [13,14] In tandem with these developments occurring, the rise of “smart cities” that incorporate interconnected digital technologies is assisting homes and cities in maximizing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gases [15]. Approaches to efficient and sustainable uses of water in homes can be addressed through Water-Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) principles [18,19] This aims to integrate water management into the urban form through the consideration of stormwater infiltration and runoff, alternative urban water supplies and biophilic urban design considerations [20]. WSUD has become a key strategy to help develop liveability and the water system resilience necessary to deal with these challenges [23]
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