Another Canberra House: Assessing the Historical Environmental Impact and Future Performance Possibilities of Existing Housing Stock Via Retrofit

This study identifies and environmentally profiles performance-based retrofit options for a typical Canberra ‘ex-govie’ house against the criteria of energy efficiency, embodied energy and cost. The modelling shows that via simple enhancements, specifically insulation and glazing, the subject case study could not only meet, but easily exceed current building standards. Further, by establishing a snapshot of the case study’s overall environmental impact, the study suggests that via retrofit, we are in a position capitalise on the embodied energy already invested in our homes and avoid knocking-them-down simply to make way for newer, larger and only marginally better performing homes. This illustrative study is supported by the development of a bespoke parametric modelling workflow that couples an interactive 3D CAD model to a real-time embodied energy calculator allowing designers to explore the implications of key design decisions and material specification.