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Our Work Category: Passive house

Our Work Category: Passive house

Mountain Road Passive House Preview - RA

12 Sep 20224 Apr 2024

Mountain Road (targeting Passive House)

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Paradise Passive House Preview

9 Sep 20224 Apr 2024

Paradise View (targeting Passive House)

Excerpt goes here.

4 Nov 20214 Apr 2024

Pine Harbour High Performance home

An East Auckland south facing and sloping site, with a historic midden to one side created real challenges for this new home aiming for Passive

29 Oct 20214 Apr 2024

Creek View (targeting Passive House)

Creek Passive House settles into the centre of an open rural section outside Warkworth.

29 Oct 20214 Apr 2024

Orakei Generational House (targeting Passive House)

Aiming for Passive House Certification, this new home is designed to grow & change with the family.

13 Dec 20194 Apr 2024

PassivHaus Community Hub

Excerpt goes here.

Passive House Architects NZ

13 Dec 20194 Apr 2024

Lower Saddle Passive House

Excerpt goes here.

Passive Housing Architects Auckland

7 Oct 20194 Apr 2024

Weiti Bay Concepts (targeting Passive House)

Excerpt goes here.

Latest

Great result for school following remediation
Maraetai home wins Gold
How Vulcan Timber Positively Impacts a Building Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
OFC ‘Home of Football’ – a Property Industry Awards 2023 Finalist
Architect ‘walking the talk’ for sustainability at home

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― Contact us

Phone: 09 913 0400
Email: [email protected]

Auckland studio
Level 1, 34 Barrys Point Road, Takapuna, Auckland 0622.
PO Box 33700, Takapuna, Auckland 0740.

Christchurch studio
Airport Business Park, Level 1, Unit B/92 Russley Road, Russley, Christchurch 8042.
PO Box 8049, Riccarton, Christchurch 8440.

Queenstown studio
Level 2, 36 Shotover Street, Queenstown 9300.

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respondarchitects

A team of Architects that tread the line between creative design solutions and technical expertise. Based in Auckland, with work across NZ

We're extremely happy to share that our Windy Ridg

We're extremely happy to share that our Windy Ridge High Performance classroom block is one of the nominees for the @propertycouncilnz Property Industry Awards 2024!
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Through energy modelling in PHPP, and dynamic modelling from @stephensonandturner, we reduced the heating energy demand by over 55% from the current H1 minimums, while also delivering a 38% lower overheating potential. A simple form helped us achieve the performance, while keeping costs in check and allowing us to include flashes of beauty and fun, with biophilic design elements internally and externally.
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A range of spaces within and around the building provide teaching spaces for every need, including a central social staircase, flexible bleacher seating, a sunny window seat, a 'green room' for filming, exterior first floor decks with views of the water, and a link bridge out to the orchard bank behind. The school have been in the building for over a year now, and rave about the levels of comfort throughout the year.
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Despite it's high level of energy efficiency, the project actually came in under budget, and was completed by Woodview Construction a whole month early! Proof that when you consider performance from the start of the design process, achieving better buildings does not have to cost more.
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If you're interested in talking about your own project, and how you can achieve higher levels of performance, durability, health and energy efficiency, feel free to get in touch!
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On the Drawing Board – a stunning sculptural hom

On the Drawing Board – a stunning sculptural home in the QT area from the RA Queenstown Office, for @dcd_ltd_queenstown
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The Landing
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A design scope based on performance, views, ease of living and being true to nature. The building's form, texture and colours are inspired from a native Kea landing on the schist landscape. The building rises out of the schist rock ground and the expansive roof encloses the occupants under its wing like form.
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Mainly northwest facing with unobstructed 180 degree views, the Whakatipu Basin is secluded and sheltered by nesting into the hillside above Lake Hayes. The ground floor provides warm, cave/bunker like spaces, representing the earth. The upper floor is light, airy and expansive as a Kea wing, split by the central circulation the body.
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Project lead @shanabanananz
Kea Photo 01 - Christopher George
Kea Photo 02 - Arthur Lee
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#lifeofanarchitect #architecture #architect #archdaily #newzealand #newzealandarchitecture #nzarchitecture #architecturelovers #archilovers #nzdesign #queenstown #queenstownarchitecture #healthybuildings #performancearchitecture #queenstownarchitect #whakatipu #whakatipubasin #lakehayes #viewsfordays #newzealandviews #queenstownviews

RA are lucky to be made up of a group of awesome i

RA are lucky to be made up of a group of awesome individuals, each with their own passions! Architectural Designer & BIM Specialist @kokako_and_huia is one of these, and outside the studio she spends almost every weekend volunteering on TiriTiri Maitangi - an island sanctuary for birds & wildlife off the coast of Auckland.
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At the NZIA In:Situ conference the presentation by Jeanne Gang divulged her love of birds, so after catching her following her excellent presentation, Luca met Jeanne and her husband for a guided tour around the island. Sustainable landscaping, and increasing the awareness of bird-window collisions were points of conversation, something we’re definitely going to incorporate more into our projects & glazing design - a great example of hour your passion can inform and enhance your work.
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This morning we undertook the first blower door te

This morning we undertook the first blower door test at our Sullivan Ave multi unit project with @nestorinvest , which is aiming for Passive House Certification.
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This is the first Passive House project for the builders and developers, so there were definitely some nerves when we arrived. Taping the staples kept them (and me!) busy while Nick from @crafthomesnz set up the blower door, then the test began…
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A few minutes later, sensational news - 0.31ach for depressurisation, followed by 0.35ach for pressurisation - an average of 0.33ach! This is a fantastic result, and a testament to the skill and attention to detail of the builders, especially on their first one. Standard new builds in NZ achieve 3-5ach, and Passive House requires less than 0.6ach; so they’ve lots of wiggle room!
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Blower door testing isn’t just for Passive House projects though, it’s an excellent tool for assessing the quality of the building envelope. A building full of holes will lose energy, have higher interstitial condensation risk, not to mention let in exterior noise. A more airtight building is far more durable, comfortable, and uses less energy. Homestar 8* level and up from @nzgreenbuildingcouncil requires blower door testing, and other countries have it as part of their building code, so it’s extremely likely it will be part of our code too in the not too distant future…!
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Massive congratulations to Samiu, Jasnish and the whole construction team - a combination of great builders, great products, and great detailing of course!!
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@proclimanz
@respondarchitects
@mevuni
@arthur0106
@starke_nz
#lifeofanarchitect #architecture #architect #designer #architecturelovers #archilovers #archdaily #archlife #newzealand #newzealandarchitecture #nzarchitecture #architecture_hunter #architecturelovers #archilovers #next_top_architects #nzdesign #blowerdoortest #airtightness #buildingenvelope #highperformancebuildings #passivehouse #passivhaus #healthybuildings @passivehousenz

We love getting feedback from the people we work w

We love getting feedback from the people we work with, whether it’s clients or consultants, as it helps us grow and improve. This one from an RA Queenstown office client particularly gave us a smile today - it’s been our pleasure to work on this project from feasibility study all the way through to construction, and we’re excited to undertake the construction observation in the coming months!
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Some images of our recently completed Remarkables

Some images of our recently completed Remarkables View Home - a minimalist, high performance family home with magnificent views toward The Remarkables and Lake Wakatipu.
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Working closely with the dedicated client, achieving a high-performance, healthy family home with level access throughout the house was the core of the design brief. With views to the south and a very steep hill site, fulfilling the brief did not come without challenges. With the budget in mind, a suspended timber structure was chosen in the early stage to balance thermal performance and cost effectiveness, while also achieving an elevated building to maximise the view and level access throughout the house.
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The dark corrugated iron cladding strengthens but not sharpens the building form, while requiring very low maintenance to suit the steep site. The feature schist around the entry carefully ties in with both the carport and covered entry, enhancing the arrival experience. The practical and minimalist theme flows through to the interior. With the views being the focal point of every room, we let the building form and the natural light speak for themselves to create an extra layer of interest.
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The thermal performance of this house has been thoroughly energy modelled in PHPP software. The overall heating demand is up to 3X lower than as if this house was designed to the Building Code H1/AS1 standard, while the interconnected heat recovery ventilation system and heat pump ensure constant fresh air and energy efficient heating and cooling throughout the year.
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If you’re interested to know more, or have a project in mind, get in touch!
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@modbox_ltd @landprolimited @qube_qs @arthur0106
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#lifeofanarchitect #architecture #architect #archdaily #newzealand #newzealandarchitecture #nzarchitecture #architecturelovers #archilovers #nzdesign #highperformancebuildings #NZGBC #Homestar #healthybuildings #greenhomes #queenstown #queenstownarchitecture #queenstownarchitect #theremarkables #lakewakatipu #viewsfordays #newzealandviews #queenstownviews

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