The Low Carbon Challenge, founded in the ACT in 2020, has been newly launched as a national initiative, calling on Australian architects to lead the decarbonisation of our built environment.
Supported by the Australian Institute of Architects’ Architecture Industry Decarbonisation Plan 2025–2050, the inaugural Australian Zero Carbon Housing Challenge offers a platform for the industry to demonstrate their commitment to efficient and sustainable housing, and to showcase how design excellence can drive carbon reduction, improve wellbeing and build resilience from a project’s outset.
National president of the Institute Adam Haddow commented that the previous Canberra Low Carbon Housing Challenge had already demonstrated how strategies like passive solar orientation, low-carbon material selection, compact form and integrated renewable energy make significant contributions to reduced embodied and operational carbon emissions, with more than half of the competition’s entries achieving net-zero or near-net-zero carbon outcomes.
“The challenge has influenced ACT’s policy discourse: when each new home in Canberra contributes roughly 500 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, architects noted that planting thousands of trees would be impractical – better to stop the emissions in the first place,” he said. “Now, the Australian Zero Carbon Housing Challenge … builds on that track record. It offers a platform for registered architects, graduates and practices to embed quality, consumer protection, and climate outcomes from the outset.”
Led by volunteer architects and researchers, in partnership with Cerclos, the challenge invites Australian registered architects and practices, and architectural graduates and students to submit designs for housing up to three-storeys high that delivers measurable reductions in operational energy and embodied carbon, as assessed using a whole-of-life carbon analysis with the Rapid LCA app.
“The competition rewards design excellence, practicality, and consumer value – not gimmicks,” Immediate past national president of the Institute Jane Cassidy said. “By focusing on front-end design intervention, the challenge helps ensure that new housing doesn’t lock Australia into carbon debt.”
Citing a report from the Green Building Council of Australia, which warned that a typical all-electric Australia emits more than seven times the carbon it will produce in operation, Cassidy commented, “It shows that the greatest leverage lies in design decisions made at the start: materials, structure, embodied services, even deconstruction potential.”
Haddow added that modelling by the CRC for Low Carbon Living and the ASBEC has shown that fast-tracking sustainable housing could inject over half a billion dollars into the Australian construction sector by 2030.
“With economic upside, climate urgency, and design integrity aligned, this challenge is more than symbolic: it’s foundational,” he said.
Registration details for the Australian Zero Carbon Housing Challenge can be accessed online.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
