Adelaide Living Laboratory program launched

The South Australian Government has announced a partnership with the Cooperative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living (CRCLCL) and the University of South Australia (UniSA) to develop the Adelaide Living Laboratory (ALL) program.

The laboratory will be an innovative research hub designed to investigate ways to lower carbon emissions in our built environment, providing a better understanding of low-carbon living. The four-year project will be located across three key development sites at Tonsley, Lochiel Park and Bowden, where community, industry and university participants will undertake on-site research to help shape the future of low-carbon living and design.

The Lochiel Park site is already demonstrating how low-carbon living can be part of our daily life, achieving an energy reduction of over 30%. Meanwhile, Stage 1 of the project has commenced at Tonsley and Bowden with a focus on integrated energy, water, waste, transport-precinct modelling and energy-demand management solutions.

UniSA Vice Chancellor Professor David Lloyd says the Living Laboratories research has “enormous potential to change the way we design communities and the way we live in the future”.

“One of the early deliverables will be to report on the economic, social and environmental value of zero-carbon housing and urban development,” he said.

CRCLCL CEO Professor Deo Prasad said the partnership will allow participants to interact with similar CRCLCL projects across Australia and a growing network of European living laboratories. He noted that a number of research projects in Australia are already underway “and vary in focus from energy demand management and modelling to community engagement and the evaluation of broader cultural, physical, economic and social impacts of low-carbon living”.

“These research outcomes will provide an evidence base that can be rolled out nationally to enable significant reduction of carbon emissions of the building and construction development sector and urban communities,” he added. “Our findings in turn can be of use to our European colleagues and vice versa.”

Professor Lloyd said, “The very nature of the research collaboration is exciting because it is bringing together university researchers with government, industry and community to devise and test better ways of living in the environment.

“Even more importantly, the project will contribute to tangible reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the built form and deliver industry collaborations to prototype, test, develop and commercialise the products, systems and services that can underpin future low-carbon communities.”