Projects

#118 Featherweight Housing: Unlocking affordable, compliant and rapidly deployable walk-up housing through digital innovation and regulatory reform

Australia faces a persistent and widening affordable housing gap, with both federal and state governments—particularly Victoria—committed to accelerating housing delivery through initiatives such as the Housing Accord and Future Homes. However, systemic delivery failures persist, with multi-residential housing projects typically taking three to five years to complete. These delays stem from complex planning frameworks, fragmented certification pathways and limited integration of prefabricated and digital delivery systems.

This project aims to address this issue, by investigating how digital innovation and regulatory reform can transform the delivery of affordable, net-zero, prefabricated walk-up housing in Australia. The project will map existing planning, certification, and approval pathways, assess digital feasibility and compliance tools, and benchmark international best practices for rapid modular construction.

By integrating digital workflows with streamlined certification models, the study aims to reduce typical delivery timelines from 3–5 years to under 12 months.

The outcomes will provide a clear roadmap for CRC partners, policymakers and industry stakeholders to accelerate compliant, sustainable, and scalable housing delivery.

Project Team: Dr Siddhesh Godbole