New Zealand House

The client’s brief for this residential project in Christchurch was to design a new contemporary family house of up to 500sqm to replace an existing 1980’s villa. The construc¬tion was to utilise prefabrication to minimise on-site la¬bour, to integrate green technology in a quiet and under¬stated way and to optimise the environmental benefits of the building’s orientation seasonally.

Designed to be built over a 12 month period on an 1 acre meadow in Fendalton, this family house utilises a kit of prefabricated components to be developed by CWA that whilst being simple to construct results in units made off-site. The two levels of the house are linked by an open staircase of hardwood.

The house comprises a series of rectangular volumes on two levels around a screened cloister and in¬cludes an outdoor swimming pool and a treble garage.

The main volumes are formed from cross laminated solid timber panels erected on simple concrete footings which are finished with panels of slatted timber and glazed units that incorporate trace heating to boost their ther¬mal performance. Internally the concrete structural panels have a waxed finish and are generally left exposed.

The ground floor is polished concrete whilst the upper floors are timber. Internal spaces are formed from a combina¬tion of structural timber panel bracing walls and joinery.