Climate change provides challenges for building designers who want to future proof buildings against future weather events. The selection of resilient building materials which can provide thermal efficiency and also endure in weather events such as temperature extremes, bushfire and floods in not straightforward, as different building materials can suit different performance scenarios. The use of insulated panels continues to expand in most classes of buildings in Australia, and their use in residential construction is increasing. Insulated panels offer many advantages including speed of build, high levels of resilience, high thermal performance and structural rigidity. Kingspan Insulated Panels has worked with local area builders in New South Wales Australia to develop two prototype residential houses that capture many of the benefits of insulated panels, and particularly the high product thermal performance available for use in roof and wall designs. The use of high thermal performance building envelopes offers increased design flexibility, and provides a pathway for better managing temperature extremes, when used in conjunction with other heating, cooling or ventilation strategies.
