 a lower resale value, all else being equal. So understandingly there is some scepticism about wooden apartment buildings.
But the successful introduction of CLT construction systems in Europe provides powerful evidence of the efforts needed where industry is entrenched in ‘old ways’ of doing business and resists a new mindset: the introduction of a more sustainable procurement pathway that includes a sustainable source of raw material (re-growing timber) and sustainable manufacturing principles.
While CLT timber multi-apartment buildings do not currently conform to fire norms or to established notions of lifestyle, they challenge our stereotypes of ‘living in a timber box’ and it is likely that fire testing will soon remove regulatory barriers. Many forms of new architecture were initially challenging and ground-breaking, questioning cultural values and traditional understandings; but have subsequently been accepted and embraced by users [69,70]. It is therefore essential to encourage new ideas about lifestyle that break with conventions (for instance, questioning the out-dated ‘Australian dream’ of living in a suburban one-storey house), that test preconceptions and, potentially, reframe our notions of urban lifestyle and post-industrial conditions . Then we can shift values and attitudes towards inner-city living in apartments.
Customer readiness for change and the perceived ease of use and usefulness of the new building material represent important steps towards the much needed social acceptance of CLT as an ideal building material to increase the density of Australian cities. Behavioural change requires a positive attitude towards CLT. Rewards for embracing CLT will support the uptake of this new building material, while showcasing CLT’s capabilities in demonstration buildings will further enhance the uptake. For instance, signage outside the pilot projects could show how many resources were saved and the CO2 emissions and tonnage of waste avoided by each building .
7. Swapping Backyards for Balconies: A Methodology for Further Research,Including Acceptability and Desirability
This ongoing research is work in progress and findings are still speculative. Two problems require focus: firstly, models of urban infill; then the study of how the use of the CLT systems can play an important role in achieving a more livable city with better models of infill housing (CLT as a sustainable construction system for urban infill). Both problems are relevant and intertwined.
Further research is required to better understand both the social acceptance of CLT multi-storey apartment living in urban centres; e.g., what triggers people to choose a more urban lifestyle by moving back to the city centre, into timber high-rise. Researchers at the Zero Waste Centre for Sustainable Design and Behaviour (sd+b) are planning two research projects to increase the knowledge base required to introduce CLT construction systems into the Australian building/construction and development sectors. The first (Project ‘CLT 1’) relates to developing acceptable solutions for regulatory approval of CLT buildings and addresses the technical barriers required to ensure a safe, acceptable product for urban infill development, including the obvious question of fire safety. The fire performance of CLT panels and timber high-rise buildings has been subject to extensive testing and detailed evaluation over the last decade; e.g., the measured burning speed of CLT panels is around 0.6 mm per minute [34,72,73,74].
The second area of research (Project ‘CLT 2’) is still in development and is likely to explore further the sustainability of CLT buildings, focusing on occupier acceptance for infill development in Australian cities and industry supply chains’ capacity to sustainably satisfy demand to 2030. The proposed research methodology will include the Delphi Approach, which aims to obtain consensus amongst a group of experts on issues where subjective opinion must be resolved (but opinions differ), by identifying group opinion as more valid than individual opinion.
In 