The ‘New Queenslander’ : a contemporary environmentally sustainable timber house

Abstract

Paper presented at the XXXIII IAHS World Congress on Housing, 27-30 September 2005,"Transforming Housing Environments through Design", University of Pretoria.

This paper describes the outcomes of an applied research project aimed at developing a contemporary, environmentally sustainable housing approach that takes its lead from the qualities and attributes of the Queensland vernacular timber housing, and that can be widely adopted in a similar way to its traditional predecessor. There was no intention to revive the original ‘Queenslander’ house but to build on the qualities which have made the timber house such an attractive and sustainable housing typology to develop a contemporary timber design vocabulary for project homes in Queensland. The design-led multi-disciplinary project took a critical approach to identifying the optimum solution that can be obtained by combining available building materials with market appeal and affordability, architectural design for lifestyle in Australian subtropical and tropical climates, engineering design, and environmental performance. It was also imperative that the timber systems developed be able to be adopted by the house building industry with minimal change to the conventional trade-based process of project delivery. The research included a review of available timber products including composite products, and a review of regulatory issues which impact on the use of timber in residential construction. The findings of the reviews were combined with environmental design objectives to develop a new construction system for integrating timber products in residential design.