Objective: to achieve a healthy indoor environment quality for the wellbeing of building occupants.
Indoor Environment Quality includes the following aspects:
- daylight
- thermal comfort
- natural ventilation
Mandatory requirements for indoor environment quality
You must meet the National Construction Code (NCC) requirements for ventilation, daylight, energy efficiency, and the objectives and standards of the local planning scheme.
Our best practice standards for indoor environment quality
- Habitable rooms of single-aspect apartments should be limited in depth to 8 metres from a window.
- Achieve a minimum daylight factor of 1% for 90% of the floor area in each living area including kitchens, and a minimum daylight factor of 0.5% for 90% of the floor area for each bedroom. A daylight modelling report for large scale developments may be required.
- For non-residential developments, achieve a daylight factor of at least 2.0% for at least 30% of the floor area of regularly occupied primary spaces.
- Design living areas and private open spaces so that at least 70% of apartments in a development receive a minimum of three hours direct sunlight between 9am and 3pm in mid winter.
- Limit the number of apartments with internal bedrooms to a maximum of 10% of the total apartments proposed.
- Design for all dwellings to be effectively naturally ventilated, either via cross ventilation, single-sided ventilation or a combination.
- Design for at least 60% of a development’s dwellings to be cross ventilated.
- For adequate single-sided ventilation, room depth to be no more than 5m.
- For adequate cross-ventilation: The length of the breeze path should be a maximum of 15 metres. Ventilation openings should be at least 1m2.
- Ventilation openings on adjacent walls should be at least 3m apart. There should not be more than 1 doorway or opening between ventilation openings. Any doors in the breeze path should be provided with door catches. Where the doorway is a front door, a security screen door must be provided.
- Locate external noise sources to prevent acoustic impacts to openable windows.
- Design external shading devices to provide protection from summer sun angles and respond to different façade orientations.
- Provide openable external windows to circulation corridors and lift lobbies to facilitate natural ventilation and daylight.
- Avoid the use of light courts for daylight provision to habitable rooms.
Developments, which seek to vary from these best practice standards, must demonstrate how indoor environment qualities can be satisfactorily achieved.
You can find more information at our Indoor environment quality factsheet and Built Environment Sustainability Scorecard.
Indoor Environment Quality includes the following aspects:
- daylight
- thermal comfort
- natural ventilation
Mandatory requirements for indoor environment quality
You must meet the National Construction Code (NCC) requirements for ventilation, daylight, energy efficiency, and the objectives and standards of the local planning scheme.
Our best practice standards for indoor environment quality
- Habitable rooms of single-aspect apartments should be limited in depth to 8 metres from a window.
- Achieve a minimum daylight factor of 1% for 90% of the floor area in each living area including kitchens, and a minimum daylight factor of 0.5% for 90% of the floor area for each bedroom. A daylight modelling report for large scale developments may be required.
- For non-residential developments, achieve a daylight factor of at least 2.0% for at least 30% of the floor area of regularly occupied primary spaces.
- Design living areas and private open spaces so that at least 70% of apartments in a development receive a minimum of three hours direct sunlight between 9am and 3pm in mid winter.
- Limit the number of apartments with internal bedrooms to a maximum of 10% of the total apartments proposed.
- Design for all dwellings to be effectively naturally ventilated, either via cross ventilation, single-sided ventilation or a combination.
- Design for at least 60% of a development’s dwellings to be cross ventilated.
- For adequate single-sided ventilation, room depth to be no more than 5m.
- For adequate cross-ventilation: The length of the breeze path should be a maximum of 15 metres. Ventilation openings should be at least 1m2.
- Ventilation openings on adjacent walls should be at least 3m apart. There should not be more than 1 doorway or opening between ventilation openings. Any doors in the breeze path should be provided with door catches. Where the doorway is a front door, a security screen door must be provided.
- Locate external noise sources to prevent acoustic impacts to openable windows.
- Design external shading devices to provide protection from summer sun angles and respond to different façade orientations.
- Provide openable external windows to circulation corridors and lift lobbies to facilitate natural ventilation and daylight.
- Avoid the use of light courts for daylight provision to habitable rooms.
Developments, which seek to vary from these best practice standards, must demonstrate how indoor environment qualities can be satisfactorily achieved.
You can find more information at our Indoor environment quality factsheet and Built Environment Sustainability Scorecard.