Explore Housing and Design at accredited Level 3. Course level is distinct from the school year in which you study it.
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What will I learn?
Unit 4 — Passive Solar Design and Sustainability
Accredited course guide — check versionThis unit is about achieving thermal comfort with design rather than machinery. You study energy sources for housing, then passive solar design for two climates: in cool temperate areas you orient living spaces and most glazing to the north, store winter sun in thermal mass inside a well-insulated, draught-sealed envelope and size eaves to exclude summer sun; in hot humid tropical areas you shade the whole building, catch prevailing breezes with single-room-depth plans, elevate the floor, vent hot air high and keep construction light. Sun angles, window percentages, insulation R-values, landscaping, embodied energy, Tasmanian heating costs and social sustainability complete the unit.
Unit 3 — Form and Function
Accredited course guide — check versionThis unit covers functional use of space — layout, flow, circulation and zoning — together with ergonomics and anthropometric data, the design of kitchens, bathrooms, studies and outdoor living, and design for groups with specific needs, especially universal design for wheelchair users. It includes ramp gradients and ramp-length calculations, basic construction and materials, and the elements and principles of design used to justify aesthetic choices.
Unit 1 — Design Communication
Accredited course guide — check versionThis unit builds the drawing and presentation skills the whole course depends on: freehand and scale sketching, floor plans, sections, elevations, site plans and setback diagrams, sun angle and shadow diagrams, architectural conventions, and the numeracy of scale (1:20, 1:50, 1:100, 1:200), area, ratio and gradients.
Units 2 and 5 — Design and Systems Thinking; Project Management (design folio)
Accredited course guide — check versionThese units teach the design process — brief, aims, client needs, context, site analysis, precedents, iterative design development, final design and evaluation — with systems thinking and individual and collaborative project management. They culminate in the externally assessed design folio: a maximum of 20 A3 pages on a small-scale project of the student's choice, with three critically analysed design iterations and final drawings at 1:100, 1:50 or 1:20.
How will I be assessed?
School arrangements: TASC course assessment applies to the accredited course and level, whether you take it in Year 11 or Year 12. Check criteria, work requirements and any external assessment in the course document, plus your provider’s internal assessment outline.
Needs verification: Accredited course guide (Housing and Design Level 3 (HDS315127), accredited from 1 January 2027. Exam and folio details carried over from the HDS315118 External Assessment Specifications Version 4 (Feb 2026) and Information Sheet Version 1.1 (Mar 2026) until TASC publishes HDS315127 documents.): From 2027 the course is HDS315127. The external structure is unchanged: a written examination on Criteria 3 and 4 and a design folio on Criteria 6, 7 and 8, with the award decided from 13 ratings (8 internal, 5 external). TASC has not yet published an HDS315127 specification and the new course document does not state the exam length, so the timing, materials and folio limits below come from the HDS315118 documents and should be confirmed for 2027. The external assessment has two components. The written examination runs for 2 hours of working time after 15 minutes of preparation time (notes on the supplied note paper and highlighting in the exam booklet only). Students receive the TASC Information Sheet and may use a scale ruler, set squares, parallel ruler, pencils, protractor, drawing compass and eraser. Section A (about 60 minutes, Criterion 3) offers one Cool Temperate and one Hot Humid (Tropical) passive solar design question; students answer one, drawing a scaled plan on the site with sections and annotations on the A3 answer sheet. Section B (about 60 minutes, Criterion 4) offers two functional-use-of-space questions — kitchens, bathrooms, studies, small units, work spaces, wheelchair users, children, aged or shared occupancies — and students answer one, usually with a 1:50 plan plus section or joinery-elevation sketches. Every response is rated on extended ratings A+ to z; the paper carries no marks. The design folio (Criteria 6, 7 and 8; maximum 20 A3 pages as one PDF; the 2027 due date is yet to be published by TASC) supplies the other three external ratings, so the exam provides 2 of the 13 ratings used for the award. ATARMAxxing's practice papers use an indicative 120-mark scheme (60 per section) purely as a study allocation mapped onto Criteria 3 and 4; they model only the written exam, not the folio. Confirm the syllabus and assessment schedule for your own completion year.
Progression and companion subjects
No complete companion or exclusion review is attached to this profile. Check the official course-entry conditions, language eligibility and your school’s sequence before enrolling. Links between resource hubs show related learning; they do not establish a compulsory prerequisite.
Will I find it hard?
Difficulty depends on your experience, interests, teaching and assessment. These are our reflection prompts, not an official difficulty rating.
- Do you enjoy designing, testing and improving a solution over several attempts?
- Look at the tools and techniques in the course outline. Ask your school which equipment and projects it uses.
Does it scale up or down?
TASC awards and scaled TE scores are distinct. The old requirement for three final-year results was removed from 2025.
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Scaling is not a measure of difficulty or a guaranteed bonus. Prioritise content you can engage with and required subjects for courses you are considering.
Try a little of the subject
Cool temperate versus hot humid tropical: what each climate demands of a house
1. What Section A is really testing Section A of the Housing and Design exam gives you a choice of two passive solar design questions: one set in a Cool Temperate climate and one in a Hot Humid (Tropical) climate. The External Assessment Specifications say both relate solely to passive solar design (Unit 4) and are rated against Criterion 3 : analyse and apply features and principles which contribute to environmental sustainability within design decisions. You have about 60 minutes and an A3 answer sheet, and you respond with a sketch to scale plus annotations. The single most expensive error in this section, named in the 2023 and 2025 assessment reports, is designing for the wrong climate: putting a concrete slab, double glazing and bulk insulation into a Darwin house, or a breezy single-skin timber pavilion on a frosty Launceston block. Before you draw a line, decide which climate you are in and write it at the top of the sheet: 'Cool temperate — goal: admit, store and keep winter sun' or 'Hot humid — goal: exclude sun, catch breezes, shed heat fast' . Every later decision should be traceable to that sentence. Choose your question by climate confidence, not by which site looks easier. A student who knows the tropical toolkit thoroughly will out-rate a student who half-remembers temperate rules, even if the temperate site seems simpler. Use the reading time to check room list, maximum floor area, scale requested, wind directions and views for both questions, then commit. 2. Thermal comfort: the purpose behind every feature Passive solar design means using energy in its original form (sunlight, breezes) to warm or cool a home, as the course glossary defines it. The target is thermal comfort : occupants feel neither too hot nor too cold without relying on active heating
Original practice question: Original practice scenario. A client wants a 60 m² one-bedroom dwelling (about 12.0 m × 5.0 m) on a flat, 20 m wide × 35 m deep block near Hobart. The block runs north–south with the street on the south. A 3.0 m high evergreen hedge runs along the whole northern boundary and must be kept. Council requires a 4.5 m front setback and 1.5 m side setbacks. Cold south-westerly winds blow in winter. Explain how you would position and orient the dwelling on this site, justifying each decision. Use the Information Sheet sun angles.
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Worked solution
This is ATARMAxxing’s original sample learning material. It is not an official assessment task or a prediction of your school’s workload.
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Sources, versions and verification dates
Profile source metadata last checked: 2026-11-14. A source check is not an endorsement by the authority or confirmation that a future course version is unchanged.
- ATARMAxxing Housing and Design Level 3 (HDS315127), accredited from 1 January 2027. Exam and folio details carried over from the HDS315118 External Assessment Specifications Version 4 (Feb 2026) and Information Sheet Version 1.1 (Mar 2026) until TASC publishes HDS315127 documents. guide — ATARMAxxing; 2026-11-14. Original existing study guide, not an independent official verification or a forecast of a future syllabus.
- Housing and Design HDS315118 — Level 3 — TASC; 2026-11-12. Official source snapshot; Course span 2018 — 2026. Check accreditation and school delivery for your cohort.