Reaching for its goal of building the best house possible for the budget, Christchurch’s Aaron Stewart Builders found traditional homes were not performing the way a new and modern home was expected to.
“There was condensation on the windows, mould was forming, and for us, that shouldn’t happen in a modern home,” says Aaron.
“We were finding people, even in the latest design of homes, who said they are cold and their power bills were high.”
“People would turn up to their new home they had only ever seen on paper, and say it wasn’t how they had visualised it, and often, it was bigger than they had imagined. “People were building bigger houses than they needed because they get no perspective of space on plans.”
So Aaron Stewart Builders joined the Superhome movement in a bid to find a way past these construction frustrations, and build the best homes possible for each client’s budget.
“We’ve tended more towards small, well designed homes which are well laid out and don’t have unused spaces like hallways and massive lounges which just get walked across and not lived in. It’s useless, it’s expensive, and it’s just more house to clean.”
Aaron Stewart Builders works with Susanne Schade from Architecta, who has worked for more than 20 years as an architect in Europe and architectural designer in New Zealand. Born in Germany, she has been brought up on energy efficient and sustainable design.
Aaron says energy-efficient and sustainable design and construction is such a young industry in New Zealand that as yet there is no standardised method to achieve it.
Aaron Stewart Builders has found timber frames wrapped with the pro clima INTELLO system to be the best way forward, as a workable product which performs as good if not better than other building systems. “And the guys on site like it. We’re builders, and we love wood.”
He says in this young industry, Aaron Stewart Builders is open to using new materials as they come along, and the beauty of working with Susanne is she is also open to the same and allows the builders to experiment.
Aaron says they are passionate about getting first home buyers into high performing homes, and the way to do that is build smaller.
“Even if it’s for two to five years, you can save on your mortgage as well as the running costs of your home. “It gives first home buyers more options than an old, cold, mouldy, low performing villa.”
Aaron Stewart Builders currently has an 80sqm home under construction in Hillsborough, designed
with high ceilings and built to the Passive House Standard.
“We would like to do the whole build mid$200,000s, and we’ll know by April whet her we have achieved it. “So far our numbers on paper are stacking up with the experience we’ve had on our last few Passive Houses.”
Aaron Stewart Builders has sustainable and energy efficient homes available to view in Christchurch so people can see and feel the difference for themselves.
This article was brought to you in association with the following businesses…
- VT Electrical
- Sydenham Joinery
- Nulook Canterbury
