Climate resilient test house: A renewable energy-integrated urban indoor farming hub for sustainability living, learning and climate action

The project seeks to establish a collaborative platform to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and best practices in developing effective solutions to critical sustainability challenges. It addresses the urgent issues of extreme heat mitigation by employing innovative approaches that integrate renewable energy and indoor farming.
In the solutions exploration process, the project will foster international and interdisciplinary collaborations, advance sustainability practices of UNNC community, and further align with the university's strategic goals of promoting climate action and sustainability. The project will seek to establish a close collaboration with UNNC's Environmental Sustainability Committee for efficient use of the test hub as a platform to foster active green practices by organising a diverse range of sustainability related activities across the three campuses. The project also aligns with local government initiatives to promote sustainable urban development and bolster resilience to climate change.
The test house, as one of the key outcomes of the project, will serve as a living case study over the coming years, showcasing the university's dedication to advancing the UN SDGs 2, 3, 7, 11, 13, 17 and tackling the intertwined challenges of climate change and food security. The experimental data obtained from the pilot test at the conclusion of this 3-year project will form a foundation for the subsequent research phase and be useful to strengthen future research funding proposals.

A test house featured with indoor planting facilities to support experiential learning within sustainability contexts. The test house will be co-created using co-design research approach that involve users (students, faculty), community stakeholders and industry collaborator from project inception. The project's planning, execution and operation will be adhered to the Living Lab principles. The test house serves as collaborative platform for projects aiming at investigating urban heat island mitigation strategies from multiple perspectives including technical, social and business.

Self-sustaining net zero emission test house is the outcome of co-design, and will continue serving as Living Lab with digital twin developed for cross-campus research and educational purposes.