Future-Proofing – Why Building To Code Is Only A Starting Point
When you set out to build a bespoke architectural home in Christchurch or anywhere across New Zealand, you aren’t just building a house – you are making an investment in the future. Although the New Zealand Building Code provides the baseline by which all construction is measured, there is a fundamental truth that industry experts and high-performance builders understand, which many homeowners do not. The Building Code is the minimum standard required, not a target for excellence.
In the context of the Canterbury region, characterised by biting cold southerlies, high UV exposure, fierce nor’westers, and significant temperature swings, building merely “to code” often results in a home that is legally compliant but otherwise mediocre at best.
6 Ways To Future Proof Your Investment In Your Home
To truly future-proof a home in New Zealand, we must look beyond the minimums, focusing on the bigger picture, predictable vs unpredictable. Here are our thoughts on designing and building for high-performance longevity in Christchurch and beyond.
1. Over-Spec The Insulation
In the industry, we often hear the term ‘over-specifying’ when it comes to insulation. From a purely regulatory standpoint, if the code requires an R-value of 6.6 for a ceiling, anything more is “extra.” But from an investment and comfort standpoint, there is no such thing as too much insulation! Why insulation matters more than you think. Insulation is the only component of your home that you cannot easily upgrade later. You can change a kitchen benchtop in ten years, but you cannot easily strip back the external skin of a hillside home to add more high-density batts.
Sticking with our Christchurch example, the Canterbury region experiences a significant difference between daily high and low temperatures, more so than say Auckland or Wellington. Local builders can work towards combating these environmental conditions by over specifying with higher-density batts (moving beyond standard glass wool to high-density alternatives that offer better thermal resistance and acoustic damping) and bridging thermal gaps (standard framing allows heat to “bridge” through the timber studs), keeping the heat where it belongs.
The important thing to remember with insulation is that the Return on Investment isn’t just seen in lower power bills. It’s seen in the health of the inhabitants and the resale value of a home that feels “solid” and holds its temperature long after the heater is turned off!
2. Harness The Sun
In the Northern Hemisphere, they crave the sun for warmth, in Australia, they hide from it. In Canterbury, we do both! The very basis of future-proofing for this one begins with the site map. A high-performance build always makes the best use of sunlight through Passive Solar Design. This isn’t just about “facing north”, it’s about calculated eaves, window placement, and thermal mass all rolled into one.
The strategy here is around positioning large glazing areas to the north, allowing the low winter sun to penetrate deep into the home, collecting and radiating heat throughout the night. And utilising calculated overhangs to block the high summer sun to prevent overheating while still allowing the winter sun to slip underneath.
On the hillside builds such as Sumner, Lyttleton and the Banks Peninsula, where sites are often dictated by the slope rather than the compass, maximum solar gain requires expert architectural know-how and careful manoeuvring to ensure you aren’t sacrificing thermal performance or views.
3. Choose Your Glazing Carefully
In a luxury architectural home, glass is often the most significant part of the building envelope. It is also the weakest link in terms of heat loss. When building in NZ, double glazing is no longer the gold standard, it’s now the baseline. For a fully future-proofed home, we now look at the specific glass recipe for each individual house.
- Low-E Coating And Argon Gas: High-performance builds should almost exclusively use Low-Emissivity (Low-E) coatings and Argon gas fill glazing. This reflects heat back into the room in winter and reflects solar radiation away in summer.
- Wind Loads On The Hill: For homes facing the brunt of the strong winds (such as on the Port Hills or the Peninsula in Christchurch), wind loads are a massive factor. Thicker glass and reinforced frames are popular, not just for safety, but to prevent the “whistle” and vibration that occurs in inferior joinery during a southerly gale.
- Thermally Broken Joinery: Using standard aluminium frames is like wearing a high-tech puffer jacket but leaving it unzipped. Thermal heart technology or uPVC frames ensure the cold from the outside doesn’t transfer through the frame to the inside – a must for today’s high-performance builds.
4. Aim For Airtightness
You can have the best insulation in the world, but if your home is “leaky”, spending all that money on extra insulation is pretty useless. Traditional New Zealand homes relied on ‘breathability’ or ‘natural ventilation’ (which is often a polite way of saying the house is drafty). In a high-performance build, the aim is for airtightness (or close to it).
Why does airtightness matter? An airtight home prevents moisture-laden air from entering the wall cavity, where it can condense and cause mould or structural rot. It also means your mechanical heating and cooling systems don’t have to work overtime to replace air that is escaping through gaps in the building’s skin.
5. Mechanical Ventilation Is A Must
If you build an airtight, highly insulated home (as discussed above), you must also provide a way for the home to “breathe” without opening a window and losing all your heat or cooling. This is where mechanical ventilation with heat recovery comes in. These systems work by extracting stale, moist air from “wet” areas (kitchens and bathrooms), drawing in fresh, filtered air from the outside and passing both streams through a heat exchanger where the outgoing air warms the incoming air (without the two streams ever mixing).
The result – you get fresh, filtered air 24/7 without losing heating or cooling. For Christchurch residents who suffer from hay fever or live in areas with lingering wood fire smoke in winter, the filtered air of a high-performance build offers a level of comfort that code-minimum homes simply cannot match.
6. Build To Your Environment (Coastal/Hills?)
New Zealand has a wonderfully varied mix of terrain with coastal and hill environments making up a big part of the build landscape. Building in Sumner, Redcliffs, or Lyttelton, for example, introduces the element of salt spray and extreme topography for these Christchurch residents. A future-proofed build here requires a different material palette that incorporates:
- Corrosion Zones: Specifying fixings and claddings that can withstand the corrosive salt air. Standard galvanised fixings will often fail prematurely in these zones.
- Resilience On The Slope: Building on a hill means the home is more exposed to the elements. The envelope needs to be tougher, stronger and more wind and earthquake resistant.
Why Over Specifying Is Worth The Investment
Homeowners often ask, “How much more will it cost to go beyond the code?” The short answer is that while the upfront cost of high-performance glazing, airtightness membranes, and mechanical ventilation systems might be higher than a standard build, the Total Cost of Home Ownership can be significantly lower if it’s done right! Always factor in the following:
- Reduced heating and cooling bills
- The elimination of mould and dampness
- Increased structural longevity
- Higher resale premiums (as energy ratings become more transparent in NZ)
Therefore, we could say…the extra investment isn’t an expense, it’s an insurance policy against a changing climate and rising energy costs, and the future needs and wants of home buyers.
At LM Architectural Builders, we believe that an architectural home should do more than just look stunning in a magazine. It should be a sanctuary that performs at the highest level, regardless of what the New Zealand weather throws at it. If you are planning a new build in Christchurch or Canterbury, contact the LMAB team to discuss your high-performance build project today.
