Prefab builder scores 6 Homestar rating for affordable high-performance homes

Fast, cheap, good: pick two. Everyone in construction has heard that saying. But it’s challenged by the prefab building manufacturer Manor Build’s achievement of a volumetric 6 Homestar version 5 (v5) rating for three different home designs. A volumetric rating is a bit like pre-approval for a mortgage. Any home built to these designs, in any of the North Island …

Amaroo

House Profile

Slashing total carbon emissions driving goal of LowCO pilot project

Carefully evaluating both operational and embodied carbon emissions distinguishes Fletcher Living’s innovative LowCO homes. The Fletcher Living LowCO project establishes a new high-water mark for high-performance homes from a volume home builder. A three-bedroom house and three terrace homes have now been completed in South Auckland, with every decision about their design and construction considered through the lens of total …

Maria’s Passive House

This appealing minor dwelling in the Coromandel bush has achieved Passive House Premium  certification—only the third to do so in Aotearoa/New Zealand—and is believed to be this country’s first off-grid Passive House. It is a remarkable achievement. The building’s footprint is a mere 60m2; it’s inherently harder to reach Passive House levels of performance in such a small dwelling because …