New Zealand Celsias

Box Living  won the Emerging SME Business Award in this year's Northern Sustainable Business Awards. Started in 2009. It produces bespoke architecturally designed homes using a component based building  building system which allows them to adapt to any site or client brief while offering certainty of price and the benefit of high-class architecture at less cost. Here we look at what the judges saw and what meant they won.

Their approach reduces costs of design by up to 80%; shortens construction time; reduces waste; and increases value for money. The build process is efficient and precise, using tried and tested details. Materials are low in embodied energy, locally manufactured, and proven for NZ conditions.

At the outset, Box Living recognised that designing and building homes today hasn’t evolved over the last 100 years.  It’s still wasteful, imprecise, poorly designed, and driven by profit margins at the expense of being well-designed, durable, effectively built, and efficient to run.   They believed in a better way.  It required a step change in the way homes are designed and built. BOX has developed pre-fabricated standard components which can be centrally produced and assembled on site.  The key has been to develop a system that is flexible enough to respond to site and brief, yet efficient to put together, while giving certainty of cost.

Sustainability is an integral part of the journey for Box Living.  Embracing the concept of social sustainability allows for affordability, efficient construction, lower running costs, and longevity of the finished building for clients.  Local suppliers and tradespeople are also chosen for any given project where possible and the timber elements of the modular units are NZ-made.  Maximising protection the environment is apparent through designing waste out of the process; choosing suppliers based on commitment to sustainability; challenging other suppliers on the way a product is produced (e.g. engineered timber beam and the use of glues/adhesives); and allowing for easy dismantling and recycling at end-of-life.

“Sustainability makes sense because simply put, an investment in lowering running costs, increasing levels of quality, and providing products that do the same, just makes sense!” says Dan Heyworth, the General Manager 

·      Bucking the trend of builders with UTEs, Box Living prefers small cars sub-1300cc and own two Toyota Yaris cars, supplemented by a UTE for longer materials. This is a new VW diesel that is best in class for CO2 emissions and fuel consumption

·         With a lot of work on Waiheke Island, Box has invested in an electric ‘Wisper’ bike which can be taken on the ferry and also helps fitness since it can be fuelled via pedal power too.

Waste

·         Waste is a large component part of the build process. The ‘BOX’ concept of modular housing parts means that about 80% of the waste can be designed out of the construction process – the number of 9m3 bins can be reduced from four to less than one on a typical project.  The office itself splits waste into recycle, landfill and organic.

Energy

·         The BOX system of pre-fabricated components means less travel to site in terms of project management and trades. The actual reduction has not been measured, but the reduction in build time (approx. 50%) supports this.  In the office, heating is achieved via an air-to-air heat pump, while lighting is 95% T5, CFL and LED.

Water

·         Water collection is built into all Box projects. The design is such that if a client does not want water collection or cannot afford it in the first instance, it’s simple to retrofit. 

Building

·         The office location was selected to be equidistant from its workers and also provide easy access to the main arterial routes given the large travel component of the work.

Other

·         Box Living’s office is part of a ‘collective’ of like-minded businesses with complementary skills – from architects through to project managers and interior designers.  Overheads and costs are shared and all businesses work together to help solve work issues and seek to involve each another in various projects.

 Social

Affordability versus quality is a key issue for clients. There are two ends of the spectrum – architectural design with the focus on design at uncertain expense, or retail housing offering cost certainty at the expense of design.  The BOX system is a hybrid system which recognizes the importance of an architect to create quality spaces and respond to site and brief, while offering the certainty of cost that retail house companies can offer. The limited number of components used gives design flexibility while reducing the cost of construction.  BOX has turned the traditional Design & Build process on its head.  The design fee is about 20% of an architect’s standard design fee since the aesthetic and detailing work is already done as part of the system.

Environmental

Waste, origin of materials, embodied energy during construction, and running costs post-construction are all major environmental challenges.  The BOX system designs waste out of the process by creating standard components that are in line with standard material sizes. Structure is engineered timber as opposed to steel or concrete and it uses NZ-based timber production companies. The component system enables homes to be dismantled more easily at the end of life and recycled.  Houses are well designed for the sun and Box Living promotes solar water heating, rainwater collection and reticulation, as well as alternative energy solutions. Clients don’t always take these options but photovoltaic pre-wiring for is usually included which costs a small amount if done during construction but is costly as a retrofit.

The build process is a mixture of off-site fabrication and on-site assembly which reduces build-time, waste and increases efficiency.  Once a builder learns the system is becomes more efficient for him to build the next one.  Yet the end result is a custom home designed by an architect, built faster at a lower cost.

Pictures are from Box Living