AUCKLAND (CU)_In September this year, New Zealand’s Crown agency on homes and communities, Kāinga Ora, announced plans for its first passive-designed social housing block. The project, which is expected to be completed in 2023, has been identified as a blueprint for healthy homes and sustainability, with the energy costs of the tenants projected to be as little as $1 a day.
However, it is the agency’s new Ngā Kāinga Anamata social housing development which has propelled Kāinga Ora to the world stage, as the project being among 17 initiatives that have been invited to be a part of the “Build Better Now” virtual pavilion at the UN climate summit (COP26) in Glasgow. This new development, launched on Thursday (28 October) in Glendowie, Auckland, will be a net zero energy pilot project which is on track to receive a 9 Homestar rating.
It will feature five three-storey buildings, which will house 30 new “walk-up” homes, while the other buildings will include two three-bedroom townhouses, eight three-bedroom apartments and a community centre. According to the agency, each of the buildings will use a different construction technology, with the aim of gathering sustainability insights on a range of building materials and systems.
One of the key focuses of the Ngā Kāinga Anamata development will be to comply with the net zero emissions targets of the government of New Zealand, while providing significant benefits to the tenants.
According to Kāinga Ora’s commercial director Matt Noyes, the agency intends to “thrash” the project’s lifecycle carbon emissions to a fraction of what they are in a traditionally-built home in the island nation by using low carbon materials, local renewable energy generation and other operational energy-efficient solutions. “Importantly, the individuals and whānau who will live in these homes will enjoy a high performing, thermally comfortable and healthy home, and a genuine solution to fuel poverty,” he added.
