30 Sep 2012
Studio Pacific’s summer scholarship partnership with Victoria University for the 2012/2013 period has just been announced. This partnership will fund the appointment of a summer research scholar who will continue the work of our two previous summer scholars, investigating various aspects of home thermal energy performance and user comfort.
Last year’s scholar James Sullivan investigated the most economical ways of raising the thermal performance of nine case study houses using 16 different design strategies and a dozen different construction methods. He then looked at different combinations of those design choices, and their cumulative impact on the thermal performance of the houses. The resulting research paper is currently being peer reviewed, and will be published on our website soon.
This summer’s scholar will further analyse last year’s design choice recommendations, looking at both the cost-benefit and embodied energy life cycle impacts of those design choices in 50, 100 and 150 year life-cycles.
Since Studio Pacific’s inception, environmental sustainability has been at the core of our work. The outcomes of this research will make a valuable contribution to our understanding of home energy efficiency, and strengthen our evidence-based design advice.
For Studio Pacific the importance of research spans both theory and practice. The lessons and findings from our research into home energy performance have already affected the advice we are able to give clients around the best design choices to improve building performance and user comfort.