tive high cost of fabrication and lack of acceptance by potential occupants (buyers).
In this paper the author analyses eight case studies of recently constructed residential timber buildings, all between 4 and 10 storeys in height: seven international and one Australian precedent. These precedents are in London, Vienna, Steinhausen, Berlin and Trondheim; while Australia’s first timber high-rise has recently been completed in Melbourne (2012). There is a need to clarify why consumers would want to buy apartments in these buildings, based on in-depth post-occupancy evaluations that involve collecting information from owners, residents, neighbours, architects and developers to assess residential life in these multi-storey timber buildings. Such first-hand impressions will be invaluable in encouraging social acceptance of similar timber construction in Australia.
2. Growing Cities and the Argument for Urban Infill
Cities are the centre of consumption; they require an enormous concentration of energy, construction materials, water, food and land, which nature cannot provide [24,25,26]. Brown notes that collecting masses of materials and later dispersing them in the form of garbage, sewage and pollutants in air, water and landfill is challenging municipalities worldwide. All this has urban design implications for housing typologies and densification strategies.
Most of Australia’s larger cities have recently developed master plans for the next 20 years, to cater for predicted population growth (Australia is currently predicted to grow from 23 million people in 2012 to 36 million by 2045: COAG ), and to achieve this growth by increasing the proportion of urban infill from a current rate of around 40 per cent in the cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide to a nominated target of 60 to 70 per cent. These cities have identified transit-oriented development (TOD) sites and allow for higher density along transit corridors as key strategy: the master plans of all large Australian cities are strikingly similar in their aims and strategies. This renewed planning focus has led to the Australian government—through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) and the federal government’s Major City Unit—taking a much greater interest in the mechanisms whereby affordable and sustainable inner-city housing can be provided. However, the production of conventional apartment buildings using concrete, aluminium and steel are one-way energy-intensive processes that release large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. One strategy to achieve more sustainable and affordable housing is to design and manufacture ‘green’ assemblies for mass customization of buildings using modular prefabricated low-carbon construction systems. The vision of ‘making buildings without making waste’ could become a reality .
Behaviour change has frequently been listed as the number one barrier to reducing consumption towards pro-environmental behaviour and a more energy and material-efficient, low-carbon future [28,29,30]. The term ‘behaviour’ can be defined as an active responsiveness to current environmental issues, believed to be pro-environmental by the person performing the response. Tackling the carbon intensity of development and urban sprawl concurrently requires finding low-carbon alternatives for urban infill development—for instance, living without car parking space on-site but within easy reach of public transport choices—and not compromising mobility and quality of life. Technology is most effective if it is embedded into a societal framework. However, residents’ motivation and commitment to aspire to sustainable living are still not well understood, for example how to best overcome barriers to low-carbon living.
2.1. Buildings Should Be Like Trees and Cities Like Forests
Besides our historical, poetic and emotional connections to wood, as a construction material it offers several important environmental benefits. It is renewable, it stores carbon that has been sequestered from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it can be rapidly regrown, it prov