Sebastian Pfautsch

March 25, 2024

If you’ve got a dark roof, you’re spending almost $700 extra a year to keep your house cool

Sebastian Pfautsch, Western Sydney University and Riccardo Paolini, UNSW

We could make our hot cities cooler with white roofs and light roads. But progress has been glacially slow.

Shutterstock

January 10, 2022

Without urgent action, these are the street trees unlikely to survive climate change

Renée M Prokopavicius, Western Sydney University; David S Ellsworth, Western Sydney University, and Sebastian Pfautsch, Western Sydney University

important decisions must be made today for urban greening programs to succeed in a warmer world.

‘Soft fall’ surfaces are widely used in play areas where children might fall, but can also get very hot in the sun, which undermines this safety benefit. Brisbane City Council/Flickr

April 10, 2018

Materials that make heat worse for our kids demand a rethink by designers

Abby Mellick Lopes, Western Sydney University; Matthew Blick, Western Sydney University, and Sebastian Pfautsch, Western Sydney University

Commonly used surfaces in play areas, such as “soft fall” materials and Astroturf, can heat up to 80-100°C in the sun. This makes them a hazardous design choice, especially as the climate gets hotter.

They might look static, but trees are dynamic living things - just on a different time scale to us. Michael MK Khor/Flickr

March 15, 2015

You don’t have to be barking to think trees are like us

Sebastian Pfautsch, Western Sydney University

Trees are more like us than you might think. They even have a pulse. They just operate over much slower timescales.

Sebastian Pfautsch

4

6

If you’ve got a dark roof, you’re spending almost $700 extra a year to keep your house cool

Without urgent action, these are the street trees unlikely to survive climate change

Materials that make heat worse for our kids demand a rethink by designers

You don’t have to be barking to think trees are like us

Contact Sebastian for