Committed to creating better quality homes and benchmarking its goals with Homestar, FLiP is delivering architecturally-smart, sustainable, economical houses to market.
All New Zealanders have the right to healthy, affordable houses says socially-conscious design and build company FLiP. And it’s on a mission to make it happen.
Its recent 7 Homestar rated Mount Roskill residential development in Auckland showcases its innovative approach to building simple, beautiful houses that enhance the lives of their owners.
Essentials
What: nine double-storey, two bedroom townhouses in a residential development centred around a communal courtyard and corner park in the Mount Roskill suburb of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Site: 1538 square metre site is situated in the wider Roskill South Development area - a government-led project aimed at reviving neighbourhoods, increasing housing and supporting Tāmaki Makaurau’s future growth
Location: Freeland Avenue, Mount Roskill, Auckland
Who: FLiP Homes Ltd - a design and build company established by architectural practice First Light Studio in 2019 following its success in a national design competition aimed at opening up the conversation around alternative housing in Aotearoa. FLiP is a collaboration between First Light Studio and specialist environmental and civil engineers from AWA Environmental. FLiP is also partnered with project management company BPM Ltd
Project certification: 7 Homestar rating (October 2022)
Project Snapshot
Main contractor: FLiP
Architect: First Light Studio
Homestar professional: Ben Jagersma of First Light Studio
Project timeline: design concept and resource consent mid 2020; houses to market/ sold off plans early 2021 (three dwellings sold through the KiwiBuild affordable home ownership scheme); construction mid 2021, occupancy commences 2022
Background: KiwiBuild is part of the Crown agency Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities. The KiwiBuild programme is a key component in a national strategy to address Aotearoa’s housing challenges through partnering with private developers, government agencies, local councils, infrastructure providers, Māori and mana whenua.
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When design and build company FLiP created a community of nine sustainable, energy-efficient townhouses in Mount Roskill its decision to use Homestar was fundamental.
“While we were mandated by Kāinga Ora to deliver 6 Homestar rated dwellings we believe it’s really important to use Homestar to not only verify that we’re achieving our sustainability and performance goals as a company but to offer a credible and well-recognised rating system to potential buyers and future owners,” says First Light Studio architect and Homestar assessor, Ben Jagersma.
He says growing ‘health, efficiency and sustainability’ in Aotearoa’s urban landscape is a prime objective for both the NZGBC and FLiP and their missions are strongly aligned.
“Because at FLiP we design homes that are a joy to live in we also understand that sustainability is not just about the thermal performance of a building - so we totally believe in the holistic assessment that Homestar offers.”
Ben says while many of the credits of Homestar are standard parts of a FLiP product and design it’s great to have a verification tool that allows the company to check its design prior to construction.
“So Homestar is excellent as a QA tool that is so detail-focused.”
Ben says while the 7 Homestar certification for its Mount Roskill project has been “a brilliant starting point and benchmark for FLiP’s first development” the company believes it can do better.
“We have already made a number of minor changes to our design for our next residential development of 20 homes in the suburb of Mount Roskill (at least 50 percent will be sold through KiwiBuild) where we will target an 8 Homestar rating.”
FLiP has three 7 Homestar rated prefabricated homes currently under construction in the Cardrona Valley in Central Otago, with more in the pipeline.
And the company’s LOW2 model - a prefabricated ready-to-go two bedroom house billed as ‘big living on a small scale’ - also has a 7 Homestar rating.
Ben believes Homestar is a good tool for improving sustainability in Aotearoa’s residential housing “especially with v5 and the added rigour to thermal performance and ventilation.”
“We too often see developers claiming a level of ‘sustainability’ and ‘performance’ with their buildings and what they deliver is that same poor quality housing we have been seeing for years. If these developers want to produce homes they need to be held accountable to a higher standard than what our building code currently requires. Homestar offers a benchmark to measure the industry against.”
Ben says Kainga Ora’s involvement with FLiP’s Mount Roskill nine townhouse project has been a bonus.
“Our vision is to provide affordable housing so by having three of the Mount Roskill townhouses sold through KiwiBuild was a great way for us to achieve our goal and hit our target market.”
Several of the other houses were sold as first homes to individuals within the organisations that make up FLiP.
“We have an affordable housing crisis in New Zealand which also impacts many of our young team at FLiP so being able to provide first homes to these people falls into our objectives as a business.”
First Light Studio says its design intent for the Mount Roskill project was to create architecture which was “simple, elegant and blended effortlessly into its suburban context - while remaining buildable, efficient, repeatable/systemised and affordable.”
Ben says while it was important to create different identities for the nine dwellings in the development “customisation like this, on top of our sustainability goals, becomes expensive.”
“So our mission to create better homes is at odds with our dream to make houses more affordable,” he says.
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To overcome the problem FLiP has developed a design system called the FLiP Stack - made up of a standardised kit of parts which can be replicated and combined in a wide variety of configurations to build unique homes that are easy and affordable to build.
The FLiP Stack standardised design system allows the company to achieve its green objectives and its vision for housing in Aotearoa.
And it is now applying the FLiP Stack solution to different sites and projects.
Ben says the tailor-made design outcome for its Mount Roskill residential project was facilitated through its FLiP Stack replicable design system.
The Mount Roskill development of nine homes - each comprising a sunny, private outdoor area accessed through large bifold doors connecting interior and exterior spaces - includes a shared park surrounding two existing Pūriri trees retained as part of the project.
Landscaping is low maintenance and simple with a mixture of different native plant species used in different forms to compliment the architecture.
Ben says the most impactful green features of the houses include:
- high levels of wall, floor and roof insulation “making a massive difference to the thermal performance of the dwelling and its overall energy consumption.”
- continuous mechanical ventilation to the laundry and bathroom which improves the health of the internal environment
- low flow fittings and on-site stormwater retention system which helps to reduce the development’s water impact
- low energy appliances and LED lighting throughout “make the homes cheaper to run.”
- well-proportioned windows suited to their orientation and external shading devices to reduce over-heating
“Having a warm, dry, energy-efficient home all year around is probably the biggest improvement to the daily lives of the occupants.”
Ben says truly healthy housing needs to enhance both the physical and mental wellbeing of the occupants
“To achieve this we need a rigorous understanding of building science and of our communities and end users, while also creating architecture that contributes positively to our built-environment.”
FLiP design manager, Nick Officer says during the construction process a site waste minimisation plan helped achieve over 70 percent waste diversion rate from landfill.
While some off-site manufacturing initiatives such as pre-nailed frames and trusses were used during the build, FLiP hopes to increase its use of pre-fabricated elements in future projects to improve the efficiency of construction, reduce waste and reduce time.
Nick says a robust project management system ensured the necessary photographs and documentation for Homestar were compiled throughout the build.
“This made applying for our Homestar rating a breeze.”
Ben says creating beautiful healthy homes “is not rocket science and doesn’t require fancy technology or highly innovative eco-technology.”
“We believe in simplicity and aim to get the fundamentals of sustainable building right first. This is the key to us changing the way we build houses in Aotearoa.”
David Hensell Photography.