No score = no home sale under the new RAIA proposal

No new home could be sold in New South Wales without advertising its energy and water efficiency score, under a new proposal put forward by The Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) to improve housing design and sustainability.

Addressing the NSW Premier's Forum on Improving New House Design in Sydney today, RAIA NSW Chapter President Caroline Pidcock said BASIX scores should be mandatory inclusions in house sales, just as NatHERS scores are in the ACT.

"Advertisers tell us exactly how energy efficient our whitegoods are before purchase, but most homebuyers have no idea how energy or water efficient the biggest, most important purchase in their lives will be," she said. "As a result, many people are buying gas-guzzling monster homes with astronomical running costs."

Ms Pidcock said average project homes being built today continue to be unsustainable and fail to adequately consider key issues such as orientation and microclimate, insulation and the protection of openings, the appropriate use of materials, and correct window design for good solar access and natural ventilation.

"People should be able to enjoy natural comfort in their homes for most of the year. They should not have to endure large energy bills to fuel add-on systems to make their homes habitable."

The sale of house designs also needs to be examined and due consideration given to issues such as orientation and topography of the site, the size of the block of land, the location and design of neighbouring houses, and how landscaping will be incorporated into both the site and the neighbourhood.

"All blocks of land should have key site characteristics and requirements identified within master plans. Designs should nominate how they take these into account so that appropriate ones only can be used."

Ms Pidcock said current design controls make the approval of houses with slightly different, innovative and/or sustainable attributes time consuming and expensive.

"New design controls should be developed for detached and semi-detached residential housing that accommodate a wide range of site issues. These should be confined to six or seven commonsense heads of consideration that address criteria to do with area and amenity. Subjective issues such as aesthetics should be omitted. Houses that comply with these guidelines should be able to processed quickly by private certification as complying developments."