Sustainability can take many forms when designing a home. It could be placement to maximize warmth from the sun, design techniques used to access natural light, or the use of locally made wool insulation products that exceed building regulations. It could be about designing a home that offers everything you need in a modest footprint and without much excess. Or it could involve sharing facilities, such as a tool shed or social areas, with neighbors.
In private and public residential buildings, architects in the southern region use their knowledge and skills to design innovative, sustainably powered homes that not only withstand the challenging climate, but also look beautiful.
The Brick House, located south-west of central Wānaka, is a good example of this. The long, low contemporary profile is clad with white-painted recycled bricks. This environmentally conscious choice of materials is accompanied by low-carbon Abodo wood, structurally insulated panels (SIPs), triple glazing, wool insulation and solar panels, all of which help ensure Passive House Plus certification – awarded to buildings that produce the same amount of the renewable energy that they use.
The Brick House was designed by architect Rafe Maclean, who applies the standards and principles of Passive House (also known as Passive House) to all his projects. These ultra-low energy buildings make conventional heating unnecessary, even in the harsh southern winters.
Naturally, Maclean designed his own house on Māori Hill in Dunedin to Passive House standards. The project prioritises both energy savings and beauty and has received several awards, with the judges of the 2019 Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects Awards calling it “a little box of built-in happiness”. In addition to winning the Southern Architecture Award for Housing, the house also won a Resene Color Award for its cheerful use of yellow.
Despite the praise, and despite Passive House principles becoming more widely understood in recent years, Maclean says the tangible benefits of these energy-efficient, high-performing homes must be experienced to be understood. It's a “don't know what you don't know” situation, he says.
“Public awareness is very low – this idea of a warm house is a bit strange. People don't really know that a building can stay warm, dry and fresh until they experience it,” says Maclean, pointing to New Zealand's building codes for the persistent and widespread problem of our low-quality building stock. “You build to code and people can get sick in those buildings. It's shameful that our building codes are so low and unscientific, and that the recent changes are so far below the direction we should be heading. It should be a given that we design warm designs.” buildings that are healthy, not moldy and use very little energy.”
Maclean champions local produce in his work, using materials such as Abodo wood harvested from New Zealand Forest Stewardship-certified renewable plantation forests, and materials made with by-products from the agricultural and horticultural industries, such as wool insulation made by Christchurch-based company Terra Lana. They are all better for the earth and reduce the impact of construction on the planet.
“The other product is straw, which is used to make SIPs panels, a product with a super low CO2 content that you can use to build Passive Houses,” says the architect, who looks forward to the industry no longer being dependent on petrochemical-based SIPs and foams that provide high levels of insulation but at the expense of carbon in the project.
Siân Taylor, one of the first Passive House certified architects in New Zealand, founded Team Green with her husband Mark Read in 2013. Like Maclean, she says change requires widespread legislation and a broader understanding of the benefits of living in healthy, energy-efficient homes. “When you live in a space that is always the right temperature, without air being blown in your face, or hot and cold spots, or mold and moisture, you experience a freedom that is difficult to put into words. I hope things will change because it is not only better for the people but also for the environment.”
Taylor says significant improvements in quality can be achieved at little or no cost: “Optimizing sunlight orientation will simplify the building form, and as we get closer to higher density, this low-hanging fruit will make the biggest difference. ”
Taylor credits Canada with being well ahead of New Zealand in quality housing, due to a combination of stricter building codes and a move toward government-incentivized Passive House designs, which have been widely adopted by developers.
While Team Green's main focus is on single-unit residential architecture, it also works on multi-unit residential, educational and community projects. Earlier this year, the practice expanded its offering to include a sustainability consultancy service, sharing experiences and knowledge gained from more than a decade of working in the Queenstown Lakes region.
Following the success of Toiora, Ross applied many of his principles to a recently completed community housing project – the first Passive House-certified public housing project in the country. Commissioned by Dunedin City Council, the accessible one-bedroom retirement units feature insulated floor slabs, SIP walls, super-insulated roof structure, airtight construction, triple-glazed timber windows and dedicated mechanical ventilation units with heat recovery. The homes share a green space and laundry facilities that have been retained from the previous housing plan. It is another innovative project that shows that there is more than one shade of green.
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CHANGE DECLARATION In 2019, Siân Taylor and fellow architect Duncan Sinclair founded New Zealand's Architects Declare division. The initiative advocates accelerating regenerative design practices, aims to reduce construction waste, accelerate the shift to low-carbon and non-toxic materials, and minimize wasteful use of resources in architecture and urban planning, among others. “The key message behind Architects Declare is that architects need to be more aware and active in their pursuit of a sustainable future,” says Taylor. “The changes that need to be made are not always easy. More education, teaching and research is needed if we are to combat climate change and the massive loss of biodiversity that our home, our planet, is currently experiencing. Architects Declare in New Zealand is a truly grassroots movement – with no money, no resources, just the desire to influence change.” Architects Declare was initiated in the UK in 2019 and has since been adopted in more than 25 countries, with 6,000 signatories supporting the original 11-point declaration. More than 150 architectural firms in Aotearoa have signed the statement and can be found on the website nz.architectsdeclare.com. |