By Bob Burnett Architecture
This ADNZ Architectural award-winning home has been designed to fit in with surroundings with as little environmental impact as possible.
Brief: A home for a family that is timeless, comfortable, warm and ecofriendly, appropriate for the site and utilising natural materials, capturing the sun, light and views.
Design Rationale:
• The house has been integrated into the hill-site and is surrounded by native bush capturing a vista looking down lyttelton harbour to the north east. Stone retrieved from the creek running through the site was used to create stone walls and a fireplace with back to back indoor / outdoor fires.
• Environmental design ethos was a high priority, environmentally sourced materials and recycled finishing timber have been use extensively in the house and joinery is solid timber rather than MDF. A reconditioned Rayburn range heats the hot water and also powers under floor heating, keeping the house at a constant cosy temperature throughout winter with low running cost.
• High sloping ceilings and a row of high level windows provide morning light and an uplifting spacial feel to the main living spaces, kitchen and bathrooms. The best view is enjoyed from the sheltered outdoor room which has a louvred roof and outdoor fireplace.
• Living spaces in both levels make for easy flow to the unique surrounding site and views. Passive solar design has been implemented well with stone and concrete providing the appropriate thermal mass.The home is future proofed and spacially efficient and the lower level can be used as a separate self contained dwelling. It will not date, partly due to the use of natural materials that provides a soft look and feel integrating well with its natural environment.
Bob Burnett Architecture has a longstanding reputation for award winning, energy-efficient, space efficient designs that are super sustainable. Exquiste organic architecture that exhibits the fusion ideas from the two directors, Bob Burnett and Japanese Architect, Shizuka Yasui. An overarching theme ‘Japandi’ - is the intersection of Japanese and Scandinavian design aesthetics, both of which utilize minimalist design principles and organic architecture. Research shows the Japandi aesthetics and techniques enhance people's health and well-being by integrating warm and natural elements in biophilic design. Simple elgence cleverly connecting with nature, through timeless design that also minimises impact on the environment.
Bob Burnett Architecture has championed energy-efficient, environmentally sound architecture for two decades. Bob designed New Zealand’s first 7 & 10 Homestar rated homes. His ethos is to create both beautiful and high- performance buildings for better livability, health, and comfort. He wants to normalise building better by helping people understand the link between New Zealand’s suboptimal building code standards, that are 20 years behind other OECD countries and alarming health and wellbeing statistics. In late 2015 Bob founded the Superhome Movement and earlier co-founded the Quakestar rating system after the Christchurch earthquakes. Recently Bob received the Sustainable Business Network Sustainability Superstar award.