Eco home design features

Minimal hallways and waste space to enable a smaller overall house area. This produces substantial savings in energy costs over the life of your home and reduces the overall life cycle cost.

Our floor plans offer a contemporary lifestyle for modern families, including sliding walls to create flexible dual-purpose living spaces. Minimum 1200 wide hallways and 860 wide doors are standard to offer accessible access for occupants

We design for Nz’s coastal environment using time-proven materials that require minimal maintenance. We specify wood as the primary structural material, as it is a proven performer over hundreds of years. Wind and earthquake-resistant bracing systems specified are well above code minimums.

We specify materials that are renewable and carbon neutral. For example, wood for the primary structure will sequester enough carbon to mitigate the energy used in construction and operation, has a low embodied energy content, does not emit chemical pollutants into the house, and will minimise the impact of the dwelling on the environment.

Our designs are all based on thermally efficient passive solar design principles, usually including the below design elements. We source and specify the latest energy-efficient sustainable products available, to promote healthy & comfortable living with minimal imported energy costs for the lifetime of your home. Our intent is to achieve average 18-degree internal temperatures 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.

Among other key features, we specify light-coloured roofs to mitigate the urban heat that darker roofs generate.

This helps to reduce our carbon footprint by dropping the electricity consumption to cool your home’s interior environment, and to combat climate change and the effect of rising summer temperatures.

We orient your home on an East-West axis facing true North (geodetic North). This can be up to 15 degrees west of magnetic north for optimal solar gain when required.

Extended rectangular shapes optimise north-facing exposure for living rooms & bedrooms and allow sun deep into the interior.

• Summer overheating is controlled by large eaves overhang & slatted shade screens.

• Canopy roofs to create alfresco living and pergolas over decks provide a sheltered outdoor living for all seasons.

• Carefully selected opening window placement allows effective natural cross-ventilation.

• Sensor-controlled solar electric IGU skylights to provide thermal chimney ventilation in summer.

• An airlock entry lobby is included to mitigate heat loss during entry and egress.

• Extensive North glazing to provide solar heat gain in winter.

• Reduced glazing to East, West - winter heat loss minimised & summer heat gain controlled.

• Minimal glazing to South façade-minimizes winter heat loss.

Well above NZ building code insulation minimum is specified for the floor, walls, and roof to minimise heating and cooling energy demand.

Wood, aluminium, or uPVC framed double glazed units are preferred. If aluminium framed, we specify thermally broken suites with argon gas and Low-e glazing.

We specify concrete floor slabs & masonry block interior walls exposed to winter sun to store heat in winter, coolness in summer, regulate temperature swings. This will keep your home naturally warm in winter and cool in summer.

If a design performance calculation is required, we use either the Branz ALF method or the AccurateNZ, Sunrel, or Sefaira software packages. We can also arrange for a Homestar rating assessment if required, available on request.