Key Architectural & Design Features of a Climate-Ready Home

Low on energy use and carbon emissions and high on comfort and durability, climate-ready homes represent the future of the Australian property development industry. 

In fact, in Victoria, we’re seeing more and more property owners and development agencies alike investing in climate-conscious architectural design methodologies, recognising these climate-ready homes and home renovation projects as playing increasingly vital roles in environmental council and community initiatives. By greening our homes, we’re ultimately greening our cities. 

Let’s unpack some of the key architectural and design features we’re starting to see across climate-conscious property builds in regional Victoria and beyond.  

Renewable energy: a key component of climate-conscious designs

By definition, a climate-ready property is one that’s been designed to work with local climatic conditions, rather than against those conditions. By utilising the natural resources available, climate-conscious properties ease a reliance on gas heating and cooling by providing organic temperature regulation capabilities.

Victoria’s unique temperate climate poses some challenges when it comes to climate-ready design, however, namely because our summers can reach extreme highs whilst our winters can reach extreme lows. This means that even with passive design methodologies in play, we’ll likely still need to rely on electric heating and cooling throughout seasonal peaks.

This is where rooftop solar panels are positioned to be a great eco-friendly asset for climate-ready homes in Victoria. With a solar photovoltaic (PV) system, Victorian homeowners can enjoy cleaner heating and cooling when they need it most, helping households avoid bill shock that may arise by running your A/C in the summer and your ducted heating in the winter.

Similarly, advancements in solar batteries have provided improved solar energy storage capabilities for Australian residences and commercial buildings. With investments in solar battery cells, your household can retain generated solar energy much like your water tank stores rainwater. So alongside generating savings by selling excess solar power back to your local energy grid, homeowners can also ensure they can continue utilising solar energy even on foggy or overcast days – which we have an abundance of here in Victoria.

Designing for climate zones 

Now let’s move onto the foundations of climate-conscious property design. Before you begin designing—or redesigning—your climate-ready home, you must first identify the climate zone you live in. Neglect this key piece of information and you risk building a home that falls short of being climate-ready for your local area. 

Australia has eight climate zones, ranging from Climate Zone 1 which has hot, humid summers, and warm winters (think Darwin) to Climate Zone 8, which has alpine conditions (think Falls Creek). Most of Australia’s population lives between zones 2 and 7, a swing that can mean humid summers and mild winters or cool temperatures. 

Rather than suggest design features for every climate zone, let’s look at a few features for Climate Zone 2 and Climate Zone 7, the two zones that bookend most of our population.  

Climate Zone 2 design features

Imagine a stretch along Australia’s east coast from Port Macquarie, in Northern NSW, to Mackay, in Central QLD. This is Climate Zone 2. A home that’s climate-ready for this zone ticks the following boxes:

• Designed for cross-ventilation and catching cool breezes
• Avoids auxiliary heating and the overuse of glazing
• Windows must be 100% openable
• Includes ceiling fans in the bedrooms and living room
• Use light colours for the roof and external walls

Climate Zone 7 design features  

Think of the southern and eastern regions of Victoria. Think Tasmania. This is Climate Zone 7. Climate-ready homes in this zone click these boxes:

• Use solar panels where solar access is possible
• Minimise external wall areas that face east or west
• Avoid overuse of glazing
• Insulate all elevated floors
• Use light colours for the roof

Passive heating vs. passive cooling

Once you know which climate zone, the next question to ask is whether you need to design with heating or cooling in mind. A climate-ready will need to address both sides of the temperature scale, with a stronger focus on one side over the other. A resident building a home in Townsville will be more concerned with keeping cool, compared with a resident in Hobart whose main goal is to keep their home warm. 

This is where passive design enters the equation. Passive design strategies use natural heating and cooling sources to create the ideal indoor building temperature. A home that needs to stay cool most of the year will adopt passive cooling techniques to achieve internal comfort. The goal of passive cooling is to reduce heat gain and increase heat loss. Techniques include shading, increased insulation, and window design and placement. 

If you want your home to stay warm most of the year, adopt passive heating techniques. Passive heating is the flipside of passive cooling: gain heat and don’t let it escape. One of the most effective passive heating techniques is placing your living areas on the north side of your home. We’ll explain why in the next section. 

Orientation 

Thanks to our positioning in the southern hemisphere, the sun sits in a northerly direction in the sky. This means that the north side of any building catches natural light consistently throughout the day. 

Considering the position of the sun in the sky and how that affects solar heat and light exposure is called designing for ‘solar orientation’. Orientation is how your home’s position corresponds to the sun’s path and the prevailing winds in your local area. 

Most properties in northern Victoria aim to catch as much sunshine and natural light as possible. Contrastingly, solar exposure in built-up urban areas can result in overheating, which is why more urban property designers are installing awnings, hanging blockout blinds, or even landscaping to include trees that provide shade for north-facing windows, thereby reducing solar heat exposure and keeping your home’s interior temperatures lower.

The benefits of a climate-ready home

Where you live will determine which benefits you enjoy more, but the benefits every climate-ready home shares are the following:

• Reduced energy bills. Given your home works with the natural environment to reduce the need for active heating or cooling, you will enjoy cheaper energy bills over time. 
• Smaller carbon footprint. Less reliance on artificial energy translates to less carbon emissions produced. An indirect benefit, but a vital one nonetheless. 
• A resilient home. Again, it’s in the name. A home built to exist in harmony with nature is better equipped to deal with adverse weather.

Like any building and design approach driven by proven science, the climate-ready approach will only improve with time, thanks to innovation and broader public education. It’s an approach that adapts to the local environment and moves in sympathy with design trends, meaning anyone worried their dream aesthetic will be compromised for comfort and resilience needn’t do so. The truth is, where matters stand with our climate, it’s an approach no one can afford to ignore.