Bushfire risk perception: a study of the perceived vulnerability of domestic architecture in bushfire prone areas

PhD student Douglas Brown (University of Sydney) explored householders’ perceptions of bushfire risk and whether perceptions change when different building materials or design and architectural features are applied. He found that people view risks as external to their properties, in terms of their surroundings, other properties and bushland.

Related News

AFAC 2013 Conference Logo
The formal proceedings of the Research Forum, held as part of the 2013 Bushfire CRC and AFAC Conference in Melbourne are now available.
A fire-safer home
As we witnessed in September and October 2013 in NSW, transferring the suburban house into a setting susceptible to bushfires causes a lot of problems.
Home cut into a sloping block of land
Douglas Brown’s interest in designing homes with improved bushfire protection is both professional and deeply personal.

External References

Douglas' project is investigating and designing core or safe-room options within domestic architecture as an adaptive integrated solution to both fire protection and sustainable building design practices. He was interviewed at the 2010 Bushfire CRC annual conference in Darwin.