As Australia's climate becomes hotter, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families are living in houses that are difficult to keep cool. Across remote communities, there is a growing need to improve the homes we already have, but knowing where to start is often difficult. Time, money and resources are limited, and housing programs often need to deliver results within short funding timeframes. This makes it even more important to identify the improvements that will have the biggest impact before work begins.
Cool Living is a practical tool being developed to help answer that question. It brings together what we know from housing, environmental health and building science to help identify and prioritise passive (those without electricity) improvements that are likely to make homes cooler and more comfortable. These include improving shade, insulation, ventilation, reducing unwanted heat entering the house before relying on air conditioning and the cooling the space around the house. Passive improvements are often longer lasting, cost less to operate, continue working even during power outages, and often mean a household uses less electricity to cool.
Cool Living has grown from years of Housing for Health work in remote NT Aboriginal Communities, together with research into housing programs and climate adaptation projects from across Australia and overseas. One of the strongest findings from this research was that the solutions already exist. We know a great deal about what makes houses perform better in hot climates. The challenge is turning this knowledge into usable, practical decisions that can be used by Communities, Environmental Health Workers and housing providers.
It will also discuss some of the key lessons from the research, including the climate change outlook, importance of improving the houses people already live in, learning from the experience of communities, understanding how homes perform in real life rather than just on paper, and giving delegates practical information they can use to make better decisions
This presentation will introduce the Cool Living framework and explain the research behind it. It will share examples from remote communities showing how practical observations and simple housing information can be combined to guide better decisions. It will also discuss key lessons from the research, including the importance of improving the climate resilience of the houses people already live in, and providing practical tools that are easy to understand and ready to use.
Cool Living is not designed to replace local knowledge or existing housing programs. Instead, it aims to support better program planning and spending, helping prioritise the improvements that are likely to have the greatest impact. By turning existing knowledge into practical action, Cool Living aims to help deliver cooler, healthier and more climate-resilient homes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
https://www.dogspikedesign.com/cool-living
https://www.architects.nsw.gov.au/resource-library/research-reports/report/205?search=bobbie&report_tags=&locations=