As temperatures rise, the health risks of deprived urban areas and poor housing condition are becoming harder to ignore. For Dr Shamila Haddad, a Sydney Horizon Fellow in the School Architecture, Design and Planning, the solution starts with the people most at risk: those living in social and affordable housing, older residents, and families facing energy insecurity.
“My research is about making homes and neighbourhoods safer, especially for those without reliable cooling by finding smarter ways to design, retrofit, and manage housing in a warming climate,” said Dr Haddad, an architectural scientist specialising in indoor air and environmental quality.
“We’re working with councils, community housing providers, and local communities to test practical solutions for heat mitigation and adaptation. We’re working at both the individual building scale and across the larger urban environment, ranging from greenry, shade and cool materials to better ventilation and community-led environmental monitoring.”
A multi-pronged approach to finding solutions
Global warming and rapid urban growth are increasing the risk of severe indoor overheating in Sydney’s naturally ventilated apartments under future climate conditions, particularly in Western Sydney, even when buildings meet current minimum energy‑efficiency standards.
This presents a significant challenge for new social housing developments.
New-build areas with limited tree coverage and large amounts of materials that absorb and retain solar heat can contribute to the 'urban heat island effect', experiencing higher temperatures than surrounding environments. Coupled with climate change, this could result in homes being ill-equipped to deal with rising global temperatures. Image credit: Adobe Stock
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LinkDr Haddad’s team is working with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), to investigate how a range of design and operational strategies can reduce overheating risks under future climates, helping to ensure healthy and resilient apartment living as temperatures continue to rise. Dr Haddad’s work combines architectural science, urban climate research and citizen science to study the performance of Sydney’s current housing stock and design affordable solutions to improve liveability. Importantly, she is exploring ways to build better homes in greenfield projects and retrofit existing homes so that no-one is left behind in a warming climate.
Her work highlights the importance of integrated, multidisciplinary approaches to understanding the dynamic interactions between buildings, urban form, and local climate, with earlier research published in Nature Cities – co-authored by Dr Haddad and led by UNSW academics – demonstrating the potential of these approaches.
Dr Haddad is working to implement this approach to estimate the health impacts of housing energy efficiency upgrade with a multidisciplinary team from school of Architecture Design and Planning, and Faculty of Medicine and Health, and the Sydney Environment Institute.
By collaborating with the designers, regulators and users of Australian homes, we’re discovering how to make truly future-proof housing under warming climate.
Dr Shamila Haddad
Sydney Horizon Fellow
Hundreds of Australian homes participate in research
Her team is monitoring 110 homes in NSW collecting half-hourly data on temperature, humidity and air quality. It follows a larger, statewide survey of more than 500 households that focused on lived experiences of NSW renters and people living in social housing.
“Our goal is to promote health and wellbeing and tackle energy security problems by building a clearer picture of the drivers of ‘energy insecurity’, also known as energy poverty, and its impacts,” said Dr Haddad.
“Energy insecurity is about affordability, access and the choices people make to keep cool or warm. These are issues that affect health, wellbeing and quality of life.”
The classic example is whether households can afford to run cooling or heating devices in Australia’s infamously leaky and under-insulated homes, and how that exposes residents to higher heat-related risks in summer and winter-related illnesses. Older adults (particularly those with chronic disease), children, and people living with pre-existing medical conditions are more susceptible to these risks.
Dr Haddad's research includes input from hundreds of residents around NSW. Image credit: Adobe Stock
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LinkIssues with air quality
Energy insecurity can also be a driver for poor indoor air-quality, which can trigger or increase the risk of respiratory illness and chronic health conditions.
Indoor air pollutants come from gas cooktops during cooking, indoor smoking, and the gradual off gassing of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from synthetic materials in paints, furniture, and carpets. Most alarmingly, reduced ventilation, used to retain heat in winter heat, increases humidity levels that leads to mould growth. Poor air quality heightens health risks like respiratory irritation, allergies, asthma, and sleep disruption, especially for children, the elderly, and people with chronic health issues.
“We also observed similar issues in homes when residents closed their bedroom doors overnight. While this can reduce heating costs, it traps pollutants, humidity, and CO2, sometimes reaching levels up to four times higher than the recommended thresholds, leading to fatigue, headache, poor sleep quality and respiratory symptoms.”
Bushfire smoke can also become a serious source of indoor air pollution, particularly for households experiencing energy insecurity. When residents without air filtration or purifiers are advised to keep windows and doors closed to block out smoke, indoor temperatures can rise rapidly.
Dr Haddad said this highlights the need for both in‑home solutions that address heat management and indoor air quality (building level), larger scale environmental adaptation strategies (urban level) as well as, personal‑level solutions. At community-level, strategies may include climate‑resilient centres that provide safe, cool, and well‑ventilated spaces during extreme events, alongside wider measures to improve air quality, reduce heat exposure, and support communities facing climate‑driven risks.
To help advance these solutions, Dr Haddad is collaborating with an interdisciplinary research team through Climate Adaptation to Bushfire Smoke and Heatwaves (ClimateRes), which focuses on integrated approaches to protect community health under increasingly severe climate conditions.
Outdoor quality readings across Sydney on 31 January 2026. Image credit: Air Quality NSW
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LinkPartnerships empower positive change
Dr Haddad’s Horizon Fellowship research has exposed flaws in traditional approaches to building comfortable, sustainable homes that can stand up to the unpredictable weather extremes driven by climate change.
It has also demonstrated the value of partnering with communities to identify the true source of issues and lived experiences, co-design affordable and sustainable solutions, and create the policy settings that support their implementation.
“This research wouldn’t have been possible without the support of local councils, namely Blacktown City Council, Penrith City Council, Campbelltown Council, Inner west council, Parramatta City Council, and the City of Sydney, community centres and service providers, Forest Lodge and Glebe Coordination Group – FLAG, Nepean Multicultural Access, Nepean Blue Mountains LHD, importantly housing providers including Bridge and St George Community Housing Limited, and their residents who’ve kindly supported monitoring campaings and shared their lived experiences.
“By collaborating with the designers, regulators and users of Australian homes, we’re discovering how to make truly future-proof housing under warming climate.”
Dr Shamila Haddad is a Sydney Horizon Fellow in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning. Sydney Horizon Fellowships empower the world's best and brightest emerging academics to undertake innovative research that will contribute to the common good by addressing the complex challenges of climate change, health and sustainability.
Hero image credit: University of Sydney / Louise Cooper
Manual Name : Dr Shamila Haddad
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