Green roofs and walls could boost residential property values by 15%, report Australian researchers
Expanding the Living Architecture in Australia
A team of researchers at the University of Technology Sydney have spent the past twelve months analysing the business case for more green roofs and walls in Australia.
Titled ‘Expanding the Living Architecture in Australia’, the research explores whether a mandatory or voluntary approach to green roofs and walls would work best in Australia, and draws on scientific literature and international case studies to illustrate how it could work in a localised setting.
The researchers conclude that a large-scale and coordinated effort to retrofit green infrastructure into the built environment could see residential property values increase by 6 to 15 per cent as well as providing social, health and environmental benefits.
Green Roofs, Green Walls (GRGW)
“With predicted temperature increases, urban centres will become hotter and less comfortable. Our project outlines the opportunity to mitigate these increases through a wide-scale GRGW effort,” said Sara Wilkinson, an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney Technology.
Her research focuses on sustainability and adaptation in the built environment, user satisfaction, retrofit of green roofs and conceptual understanding of sustainability. Sara is on the editorial board of five international refereed journals.
Prior to becoming an academic, she worked in London providing professional Building Surveying services particularly in refurbishment of commercial buildings and social housing.
“Currently, Australia has no consistent policy approach to GRGW except for the City of Sydney and the City of Melbourne, which have policies that align with their respective 2030 and 2040 sustainability targets,” continued Sara Wilkinson
“Barriers to adoption here in Australia include installation and maintenance costs, and a lack of awareness, professional guidance and experience when it comes to working on projects involving this kind of green infrastructure.
“Research suggests that these barriers will diminish over time as living infrastructure is considered earlier in the building timeline and that more offices and large residential blocks are retrofitted with GRGWs economies of scale will be realised.”
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The full report Expanding the Living Architecture in Australia (GC15001) is available upon request at Hort Innovation’s website. GC15001 is a Green Cities Fund project, which has been developed by Hort Innovation as part of its recently developed Hort Frontiers strategic partnership initiative.
One Central Park is an award-winning mixed-use building located in Sydney, Australia in the suburb of Chippendale. The building itself comprises two residential apartment towers, an east and west tower, in addition to a six level retail shopping centre at the base of the towers.