An experiment with design and construction: Determining barriers to sustainable, urban, residential renovation.

摘要

The specific research goals of this project were to purchase and renovate a home using sustainable and pro-environmental materials, technologies and practices and to determine the barriers to sustainable residential design and renovation in a low-income neighbourhood in the context of a detached single-family dwelling. I was seeking to determine actual or potential solutions to these determined barriers, to create a sustainable home that could serve the purpose of a demonstration home and to share the research with involved communities.; The project identified both expected and unexpected barriers to urban, residential sustainable construction and renovation. These barriers are the construct of sustainability and our inability to define it and live by it, the current aesthetic and process of design and the lack of infrastructure and affordability of sustainable construction.; The thesis ends with a number of recommendations and opportunities that could help to facilitate sustainable residential renovation in future.