Foresights for future Australian home life
About the report
Foresights for Future Australian Home Life delivers new qualitative foresight about how Australians are likely to live in their homes in possible futures. It first presents six key foresighting values derived from our research, and for use in scenario development. It then presents the research design followed by our research findings organised into six themes: electric cars; working from home; digital connectivity, community and security; storage and preparedness; inequalities and vulnerability; and trust and control.
For each theme we present three layers of knowledge: foresight for future life; energy implications; and detailed findings. Each layer represents a possible entry point into the report, catering to the priorities and interests of different readers and enabling access to the detailed ethnographic information when required.
The report is an output of Work Package 1 (WP1) of Scenarios for Future Living. It reports on the futures focused ethnographic household fieldwork undertaken in 2025, and draws on evidence from the project’s nationally representative survey (Kaviani et al. 2025) and industry perspectives review (Dahlgren et al. 2026) to contextualise and support its findings. The ethnographic research provides depth, meaning and insight into emerging practices and values, while the survey provides broader population context and helps identify the prevalence of selected trends and experiences.
The report is intended to support scenario development, forecasting, modelling, policy design, consumer engagement and the development of future products and services by identifying social dynamics that may shape future energy demand, participation and technology uptake. It delivers the future-focused qualitative evidence base and conceptual frames needed to support the development of speculative design artefacts (WP5) and scenarios (WP3).