Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Glass Walls and Clever Energy-Reducing Ideas: Dulieu Residence in New Zealand

 In developing this project, the architects at practice Studio MWA started from the characteristics of the site, a lovely nature retreat near Wellington, New Zealand. The butterfly shape was “adopted” by the project team while panning Dulieu Residence, a three bedroom family home. The architects explain:
“Together with the client a brief was developed, but from the start it was obvious that a simple single story design using natural materials, quality orientation to capture sun to take advantage of passive solar energy heating, rainwater and spring water collection, environmentally responsible sewer treatment, with a sustainable approach was ideal. The final house is easy to live in, with indoor-outdoor flow, low maintenance, but the openness and simplicity are the main characteristics of this design. To create a residential project which has nearly 70% of exterior walls in glass is always very challenging in order to follow the standards and requirements, but we achieved all that and even more.” Impressed?