Associate Professor Terence Williamson

Biography/ Background

Terry was educated in engineering and architecture in Australia and is Associate Professor of the School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design at Adelaide University, Australia. He has taught, researched and published in areas of energy, thermal performance and sustainability related to the built environment. Terry is the author (or co-author) of over one hundred publications including books, journal articles and conference papers. He is currently Associate Dean (Post Graduate Coursework) of the Faculty of Professions.

His earlier research was concerned with the basic issue of providing relevant design advice for improving the thermal and environmental performance of buildings. He developed a variety of research tools and techniques to provide information to backup arguments regarding these issues including, computer simulation software, householder surveys and interviews, the recording of occupant behaviour (eg. Comfort Vote Logger) and building performance monitoring (eg temperature and energy consumption).

An ARC Discovery project awarded in 2002 Building and Ethics: Understanding A Corpus of Contemporary Australian Award-Winning Houses as Responses to Ecological, Social and Built Contexts broadened research interests into the general area of the design of sustainable building. Early output of this research was a book Understanding Sustainable Architecture (Williamson, Radford & Bennetts, 2003) which is a concise review of the assumptions, beliefs, goals and bodies of knowledge that underlie the endeavour to design environmentally (more) sustainable buildings and other built developments. It shows that much of the available advice and rhetoric about sustainable architecture begins from positions where important ethical, cultural and conceptual issues are simply assumed.

Recent and continuing research has concentrated on two issues. First, data has been collected with the objective of corroborating the operation of the Building Code of Australia's energy-efficiency provisions, in particular the effectiveness of the NatHERS Star Rating Scheme for dwellings. One output of this work in 2004 was a major submission to the Productivity Commission's enquiry into Energy-efficiency in the Australian economy.

The second research area concerns the urban mirco-climate. In collaboration with Dr Evyatar Erell of the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel the urban mirco-climate model CAT has been developed and evaluated on the basis of field measurements. The model predicts hourly air temperature in an urban street canyon for extended periods in a variety of weather conditions, on the basis of meteorological time series recorded at an open site exposed to the same meso-scale conditions, taking into account the geometry of the two sites and the thermal properties of their respective surface materials. This model is used to study design implications in relation building energy consumption associated with factors such urban density and street geometry.

Qualifications

B.E. (Mon), B.Arch (Melb), PhD (Adel)

Teaching Interests

Sustainable building & urban design; building construction; building economics

Publications

Books
Williamson, T.J., Radford, A. & Bennetts, H. (2003) Understanding Sustainable Architecture, London: Spon Press.

Williamson, T.J. (2002) R-values for Timber Framed Building Elements, Forest and Wood Products, Research and Development Corporation, Online: Available http://www.timber.org.au/menu.asp?id=104 (July 2007)

Williamson, T.J., Pullen, S., Bennetts, H., et al. (2001) Environmentally Friendly Housing Using Timber - Principles, Melbourne: National Timber Development Council and the Forest and Wood Products, Research and Development Corporation. Online: Available http://www.timber.org.au/menu.asp?id=107 (July 2007)

Refereed Journals
Williamson, T.J. and Erell, E. (2008) The Implications for Building Ventilation of the Spatial and Temporal Variability of Air Temperature in the Urban Canopy Layer, International Journal of Ventilation, 7(1), pp 23-35.

Erell, E. Williamson, T.J. (2007) Intra-urban differences in canopy layer air temperature at a mid-latitude city, International Journal of Climatology, (27)9, pp 1243-1255.

Erell, E., Williamson, T. J. (2006) Simulating air temperature in an urban street canyon in all weather conditions using measured data at a reference meteorological station, International Journal of Climatology, (26)12, pp 1671-1694.

Erell, E., Williamson, T. J. (2006) Comments on the correct specification of the analytical CTTC model for predicting the urban canopy layer temperature, Energy and Buildings, (38) 8, pp 1015-1021.

Soebarto, V. and Williamson, T.J. (2001). Multi-criteria Assessment of Building Performance: Theory and Implementation, Building and Environment, Volume 36 (6) pp 681-690.

Refereed Conferences
Erell E., Soebarto V. and Williamson T. (2007) Accounting for urban microclimate in computer simulation of building energy performance. In Wittkopf S. and Tan B. K. (Eds.) Sun, Wind and Architecture, Proceedings of PLEA 2007, 24th International Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Singapore, November 22-24, 2007, pp. 593-600.

Williamson, T.J., Plaves, Y. and Hart, R.L. (2007) An Evaluation of the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS), In Coulson, J. (ed) Proceedings of 41st Annual ANZAScA Conference, Deakin University, Geelong. (Published on CD)

Williamson, T.J., Soebarto, V., Bennetts, H. and Radford, A. (2006). House/Home Energy Rating Schemes/Systems (HERS), In R. Compagnon, P. Haefeli and W. Weber (Eds), Proceedings of PLEA2006-The 23rd Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Geneva, Switzerland Vol I, pp. 227-32.

Soebarto, V., Williamson, T.J., Bennetts, H. and Radford, A. (2006). The performance of award winning houses, In R. Compagnon, P. Haefeli and W. Weber (Eds), Proceedings of PLEA2006-The 23rd Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Geneva, Switzerland, Vol I, pp. 855-860.

Andamon, M.M., Williamson, T.J. & Soebarto, V. (2006) Perceptions and Expectations of Thermal Comfort in the Philippines, in F. Nicole (ed), Proceedings of International Conference Comfort And Energy Use In Buildings -Getting Them Right, Cumberland Lodge, Windsor, UK. (Published on CD)

Williamson, T.J., Delsante, A. (2006) Investigation of a Model for the Ventilation of Suspended Floors, in S. Shannon, V. Soebarto & T. Williamson (eds), Proceedings of 40th Annual ANZAScA Conference, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, pp 143-150. (Published on CD)

Williamson, T.J., Delsante, A. (2006) An Investigation of the Ventilation Requirements to Prevent Deterioration of Timber and Mould Growth beneath Suspended Floors, in S. Shannon, V. Soebarto & T. Williamson (eds), Proceedings of 40th Annual ANZAScA Conference, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, pp 159-166. (Published on CD)

Williamson, T.J. (2006) Building Simulation and Sustainable Architecture: A Philosophical View, in V. Soebarto (ed), Proceedings of International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA) Australasia Conference, The University of Adelaide. (published on CD)

Radford, A., Soebarto, V. Williamson, T.J., Bennetts, H. (2006) Judgement in the design of houses: explanations by architects for design decisions, in S. Shannon, V. Soebarto & T. Williamson (eds), Proceedings of 40th Annual ANZAScA Conference, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, pp 143-150. (Published on CD)

Williamson, T. J. (2004). Thermal Performance Research in Australia: The Formative Years 1942-1972. In Z. Bromberek (Ed.), Proc of 38th Conference of the Architectural Science Association ANZAScA: Contexts in Architecture. Launceston: The University of Tasmania, pp. 363-370.

Erell, E., & Williamson, T. J. (2004). The CAT Model:Predicting Air Temperatures in Streets on the Basis of Measured Reference Data. In Z. Bromberek (Ed.), Proc of 38th Conference of the Architectural Science Association ANZAScA: Contexts in Architecture, Launceston: The University of Tasmania, pp. 210-215.

Soebarto, V., Williamson, T. J., Radford, A., & Bennetts, H. (2004). Perceived and Prescribed Environmental Performance of Award Winning Houses. In Z. Bromberek (Ed.), Proc of 38th Conference of the Architectural Science Association ANZAScA:Contexts in Architecture, Launceston: The University of Tasmania, pp. 242-248.

Soebarto, V. I. & Williamson, T. J. (2003) A multi-criteria assessment tool to assess the environmental performance of house designs, in Waldo Bustamante G, Eugenio Collados B (eds) Proceedings of the PLEA 2003 Conference; Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile.

Radford, A.D., & Williamson, T.J. (2002). What is sustainable architecture?, in: Luther, M, Dawson, T., Ham, J., Moore, M., Rollo, J. and Treloar, G. (eds) Proceedings of 36th ANZAScA Conference, Australia and New Zealand Architectural Science Association, Geelong: Deakin University, pp. 427-434.

Reports to Government & Industry
Williamson, T.J. and Bennetts, H. (2008) Proposed Changes To The Glazing Requirements Of The South Australian Housing Code, Adelaide: S.A. Department for Transport, Energy & Infrastructure.

Williamson, T.J. and Beauchamp, B. (2005) Insulation Solutions to Enhance the Thermal Resistance of Suspended Timber Floor Systems in Australia, Forest and Wood Products Research and Development Corporation. Online: Available http://www.timber.org.au/resources/Insulation%20Solutions%20for%20Suspended%20Timber%20Floor%20Systems.pdf (Sept 2008)

Williamson, T.J. and others (2005). Contribution to Submissions to the Productivity Commissions Enquiry into Energy-Efficiency #28 and DR133, The University of Adelaide. Online: Available http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiry/energy/subs/sublist.html (July 2008)

Williamson, T.J. & Delsante, A.E., (2002) The Issues Associated with Residential Energy Performance Assessment Tools to be Used in Evaluating Alternative Solutions, The Department of Industry Science and Resources, Australian Building Codes Board, BCE Doc. 02/027 Online: Available http://www.abcb.gov.au/content/publications/REPATs_Scoping_Study.pdf (Sept 2008)

Entry last updated: Tuesday, 26 May 2009