Why do houses face the street, and not the sun?
Traditions and habits in Australian housing dictate that we design our homes to look good from the street, focusing on an impressive entry to show to visitors and neighbours. As we also build our housing in street ‘blocks,’ only (roughly) 1 in 4 homes may then have living rooms facing the sun, whilst many living rooms are (sadly) on the darker sides of a house.

Change of focus from quantity to quality. Change from maximum-m2 to comfort and efficiency.
Australian (and USA) homes are the largest in the world. We have sacrificed quality in the pursuit of more m2, but with clever design we can reduce size and better use our building and financial resources for added comfort and longer house life.

To compare, why do cars still need constant A/C during a journey when a car’s cabin is so small?
Just like most housing, cars are not designed or built for thermal comfort. Their steel and glass materials, lack of insulation, gaps and other issues all result in their inability to hold a good temperature without constant A/C or heating.
Houses with the same lack of sustainable design as cars have are just as difficult to keep at a comfortable temperature.

The difference between Energy Efficiency (EE) and Sustainability:
EE measurements are straightforward, using common tools, science, math. It’s simply the amount of power used in a home.
Sustainability is more difficult to define, rate or grade and it extends far beyond EE.
Being sustainable is about meeting our needs without reducing the ability of those in the future (children/ grand-children/ others) to also be able to meet their needs.

The 1m2 gap in each home’s walls. A big surprise.
Surprisingly, adding up all the gaps in a typical Australian house gives a size of 1m2, which means that whilst we try to heat or cool our homes, we have only limited control over our indoor environment. Filling gaps is the first step to temperature control and comfort.

The average NatHERS rating for Australian homes, for EE, is around 1.8 of 10 Stars.
Whilst recent homes were built to the regulated standard of 6/10 Stars (and soon to be 7) millions of homes were built before those regulations began, meaning many homes have temperature control only slightly better than a camping tent. With an average rating of less than 2 in 10, it’s no surprise that people struggle through the seasons and often get bill shock when seeking comfort.

How buildings affect the climate and how the climate affects buildings.
Building damage and cost damage. Climate change is a 2-way relationship. As we build and retrofit, we need to be aware that just as we continue to cause more damage to the climate, the changing climate is also increasingly damaging buildings. This is seen in the ever larger and more frequent floods, storms, extreme heat days, bush-fires (and insurance premiums).

Preventing an issue via good planning is easier than managing an issue.
The more we plan, the more we can manage buildings for our long-term benefit. Things we do in the design and construction phases can greatly benefit us in the long occupancy stage of a building’s life.

Sustainability is the 4th element of architecture.
General good building design acknowledges 3 key elements of architecture; function, structure and beauty (aesthetics.) 
To these we now also blend in sustainability so the home then increases in functionality, is of better quality (structure), is still (or is even more) beautiful and is now also more sustainable.