Hot on the home front
Natural timbers and sustainable design are vital for bespoke homes, potentially spelling the end of the ‘black box’, writes Colleen Hawkes.
Christchurch architect Tim Nees has just completed his own house on the hill at Taylor’s Mistake – a small seaside community known for its quaint weatherboard baches and cave homes.
But there’s no mistaking the new Nees house – it’s the bright white, modern building that sits lightly on the ground among the trees and bushes. The vertical board cladding references the old baches, but it’s the architect’s reason for the colour that’s especially interesting.
‘‘I painted it white because I didn’t want another black house,’’ he said.
Which prompts the question: Is the era of black-box architecture starting to wane at last? It’s a typology that has dominated the landscape for several years now. But residential architectural changes happen slowly, due to long lead-in times and builds.
Whatwe are seeing ismore houses featuring exposed timbers, both inside and out. Operable timber shade screens and decorative rainscreens are proving well suited to our climate.
‘‘The timber language is seen a lot in the north of the country,’’ Nees says. ‘‘But there are regional differences. We still have a lot of quite hard-edged gable forms being built around Christchurch.
‘‘The single large gable that simplifies the overall shape of the building is a bit of a trend.’’
Nees, of New Work Studio, won a Canterbury New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) Housing Award for Houhere, a timber house on Banks Peninsula he calls ‘‘a truly casual weekender’’.
The judges described it as a ‘‘celebration of sustainable construction and living – a house that expresses its integrity through its crafted timber construction and as a sustainable insertion into a powerful rural setting’’.
Sustainable design
It’s fair to say an increasing number of architects and clients are looking for sustainable design solutions, and timber is awelcome alternative to concrete and steel, which have high levels of embodied carbon.
‘‘There is more of an awareness of the need to lessen our individual footprints on the planet,’’ Nees says.
‘‘It comes up in conversationswith clients, and the NZIA is very much pushing for change.
‘‘If you do want to get recognition [by the institute], you need to show how a design is working with the environment, in terms of sustainability and low-carbon features.
‘‘A lot ofwhat I do is driven by the particular circumstances of the site and the client. But I consciously try to limit the amount of concrete and structural steel. There is so much more that can be done today with laminated timbers. Engineers are breaking new ground in this area.’’
But Nees says it’s a slow shift, especially in Christchurch – he still gets clients looking at houses with big, raw concrete walls, who say, ‘‘I want one of those.’’
Compact and clever
However, we can expect to see more compact, cleverly designed homes maximising small and steep sites in our cities.
Architects Sally Ogle and Ben Mitchell-Anyon of Patchwork Architecture in Wellington say they are working on many examples.
‘‘This is partly because land is scarce in the central city and surrounding suburbs, but also because land has significantly increased in value over the last few years,’’ says Ogle. ‘‘Homeowners are seeing value in subdividing their section, or building an infill house alongside their existing house.
‘‘The work that we do tends to be smaller, smarter, more-efficient homes, which pack more into less space – in part so that they are feasible on those tricky sites, and partly due to environmental and budgetary concerns.’’
Mitchell-Anyon says: ‘‘One of the most sustainable things we can do is build less and ensure that the spaces we’re creating will stand the test of time, with durable materials and spaces that are flexible enough for their occupants to use in different ways over time.’’
The pair say garages are becoming less of a priority with some of the firm’s inner-city projects. This follows the recent change in the rules regarding the need to provide an offstreet car park for every dwelling.
‘‘On steeper sites it can be difficult – or expensive – to provide garages, and on smaller sites garages might be taking up valuable square metres,’’ says Ogle. ‘‘Instead we’re ensuring storage space for all the things people keep in garages, with dedicated bike sheds, increasingly with power for charging e-bikes.’’
Working from home
In the wake of the Covid-19 lockdowns, we can expect new houses to accommodate more spaces for people to work from home.
‘‘The experiences of 2020 in aworld with Covid have shaped how people see their homes,’’ says MitchellAnyon. ‘‘People are spendingmore time at home, including working from home some of the time. We’re seeing a desire for a dedicated workspace, or a space that is flexible and can be used as an extra living room, office, or spare bedroom.’’
Some architects have been advocating a ‘‘broken-plan’’ layout over open plan over the past few years. In other words, they like to
provide break-out areas where family members can work on devices, yet still be connected to the main household.
Unique NZ perspectives
Not so long ago Kevin McCloud, the presenter of Grand Designs UK, spoke of his love of this country’s architecture: ‘‘I am drawn to the pioneering spirit of the country, and the architecture reflects that,’’ he said.
‘‘There’s an adventurous current running through it, and a lightness in the way the houses sit in the landscape. Houses are often in timber and modest in scale and ambition, and I love that.’’
In 2021 and beyond, we can also expect to see more projects that reflect a unique bicultural approach to design – it is evident in many of this year’s NZIA award-winning projects, including architectMichael O’Sullivan’s Toto Whare, amodern addition to a former state house in Lyttelton, which won the Sir Ian Athfield Award for Housing.
NZIA president Judi Keith-Brown says the cultural literacy of architects and the institute has come a long way in just a few years and, as a result, the integration of Ma¯ori and Pasifika design languages into our built environment is quickly becoming the new norm.
One of the most significant shifts the institute has seen is a rapid improvement in understanding that close and early engagementwith mana whenua on architectural projects is essential.
‘‘Te Kaunihera o Ta¯maki Makaurau [the Auckland Council] has recently launched a refreshed Ma¯ori Design Hub, which also includes Ka¯inga Hou design thinking for urban Ma¯ori housing, developed in partnership with Ta¯maki Makaurau Office Architecture,’’ Keith-Brown says.
This is a great resource for all involved in the making of great places for people and the exploration of a Ma¯ori design kaupapa for Ta¯maki Makaurau.
Passive houses
An increasing number of people are taking a serious approach to the future of housing and how it impacts both the environment and family health. They recognise the standard building code is aminimum standard that isn’t going far enough, and are opting to build a certified passive house that will provide ongoing energy savings.
Jon Iliffe of eHaus says passive houses have been a nichemarket for the past 10 years, but the company is now getting architects and designers asking to be part of the movement.
‘‘When you do understand the building science, it becomes a nobrainer,’’ he says.
The biggest challenge faced by the movement is the slightly higher costs involved in building a passive house, which are offset by a highperformance house that provides year-round comfort and cheaper energy costs for homeowners.
To help with affordability, eHaus is preparing a selection of plans under the People’s House banner, whichwill reduce the need for pricier bespoke projects.
‘‘A passive house not only has to perform well, but it also needs to look good. It’s a balancing act – there has been criticism that the architecture can be very simplistic, but at the same time performance is everything,’’ says Iliffe.
The plans are expected to be rolled out early this year.
Apartments
In the recent past, we have seen the introduction of new ‘‘carless’’ apartments, a trend that looks set to continue, along with projects aimed at long-term renters.
This past year, Ockham followed up its 10 Homestar-rated Daisy apartment building (the first) in Mt Eden, Auckland, with the Modal, a carless apartment initiative for longterm renters in Mt Albert. The company says it was fully tenanted in a few weeks, with residents appreciating the close proximity to bus routes and trains.
‘‘There’smassive demand, especially among younger people, for bike garages, shared vehicles and reliable and regular public transport,’’ says Ockham co-founder Mark Todd. ‘‘We believe the heyday of private car-clogged cities has passed. This is the future of Auckland.’’
Todd believes solving the housing crisis will require ‘‘imagination, selflessness, community mindedness and, above all, urgency’’.
‘‘Like everything housing-related, it’s easy to focus on the failures, but there are signs that we’re starting to get things right. That we’re cranking the numbers up again and, as importantly, building smarter, closer, instead of sprawling and repeating the mistakes of the past.’’
Co-housing
Ogle and Mitchell-Anyon say we can expect to see a lot more mediumdensity housing, co-housing projects, and other alternative development models in the coming years.
This year willmost likely see the completion of the sustainably designed Urban Habitat Collective cohousing project, which will boast a mix of age groups, in Adelaide Rd, Newtown, Wellington.
But invariably there are challenges ahead for architects and their clients. Ogle and MitchellAnyon say they were seeing chain disruptions on building sites, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, as 2020 drew to a close. ‘‘We suspect that might be something that continues into 2021, which will be a challenge we will have to consider on our own projects,’’ says Ogle.