Style: August 03, 2018
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STYLE | home 23<br />
Where next for Superhome?<br />
In three years the movement has already expanded<br />
to Queenstown, Wellington and Auckland, which will<br />
host its first Superhome Tours in September <strong>2018</strong>. In<br />
Christchurch, an eco-village of 50 seven-Homestar and<br />
above houses is being built on Clifton Hill.<br />
A big boost to national awareness should come when<br />
Bob and the Superhome principles feature in a new TVNZ<br />
series What next?, currently in production and focused on<br />
how we’ll live tomorrow. “With what we’re building, we’re<br />
trying to predict the future and we need to make sure<br />
that we’re prepared for that.”<br />
And the group is now more actively lobbying a more<br />
receptive Government for consumer incentives to push<br />
things forward and for the people who set the Building<br />
Code to “be bold and make some changes”.<br />
Bob’s advice for someone who wants to build a better<br />
home is “do your own research and understand what<br />
good design can do for you”. He laments that design is<br />
marginalised heavily here with more than 90% of local<br />
homes built to building companies’ plans “because people<br />
think they’ll save a few thousand dollars”.<br />
He also urges us to build “lifetime” houses designed<br />
to last not the regulation 50 years, but 100 to 200 years<br />
and not with a view to selling them after five years. “In<br />
other countries they’re planning ahead and thinking ‘we’re<br />
going to hand this home down to our children and our<br />
grandchildren’. The lightbulb needs to go on here too.”<br />
The living room in NZ’s first 10-Homestar home,<br />
designed by Bob Burnett, utilises passive solar principles.<br />
Superhome ratings<br />
The New Zealand Green Building Council awards Homestar<br />
ratings that evaluate home health, energy, water, waste and<br />
material usage to achieve a home that is warm, healthy and<br />
long-lasting, which costs very little to run and has minimal<br />
impact on the environment.<br />
The typical New Zealand home, that meets but does not<br />
exceed the current Building Code, will generally achieve a<br />
three-star Homestar rating. To qualify as a Superhome a house<br />
must achieve a six-Homestar rating. The maximum is 10 stars.<br />
www.christchurch.build7.co.nz
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