Context is Everything

Kāinga Ora asked us to be involved in a research and development pilot programme to change the future of sustainable residential development. The organisation’s ambition was to understand what high-performance; low-carbon social housing would look like using New Zealand-sourced materials and building systems.

We designed five almost identical apartment buildings, each from a different structural system: steel, concrete, light frame timber, mass/cross-laminated timber and a hybrid combination of light and mass timber.

Sustainability and lifecycle carbon mitigation was at the forefront from the programme’s inception, along with aspirations for each building to achieve Passive House certification and be net-zero energy.

5 Systems has continued to evolve and has since been gifted the name Ngā Kāinga Anamata, te reo Māori for ‘Homes of the Future.’ The data and learnings from this programme will influence and catalyse system transformation in the construction industry for years to come.

Ngā Kāinga Anamata featured at the COP26 Built Environment Virtual Pavilion Build Better Now – one of just 17 exemplary sustainable projects selected from around the world for the virtual reality (VR) online pavilion. You can find out more by visiting https://virtualpavilion.co/nga-kainga-anamata