By Vicki Holder
Posted on July 29, 2010. Listed in:
Dan Heyworth describes the current building industry in New Zealand as “extremely fraught, messy and complex”. His company, Box Living, was established by a builder, an architect, a project manager and a sustainability expert, who wanted to improve the value and efficiency of designing and building. Vicki Holder explores Heyworth’s modular system for building architect-designed, energy-efficient houses.
Stepping outside the box - for a more sustainable future
At the leading edge of change, Dan Heyworth, the founder of a modular system for building architect-designed, energy-efficient houses, says the whole building industry is “extremely fraught, messy and complex” – and has been for many years. He believes a huge shake-up is due to create different ways of designing for the average person with an average budget.
The concept of “Big is beautiful” is something we need to address, says Heyworth. “Many architects are designing for people with big budgets and large plots of land. In 1940 the average house in New Zealand was 120m2. Today, when families are much smaller, the average size is 220m2. We’re not being clever. The production process hasn’t changed. There’s still little evidence of modularisation of building components. A lot of things could happen to make the industry more efficient and environmentally friendly.”
Box Living is a step in the right direction, he says. The company was established by a builder, an architect, a project manager and a sustainability expert, who wanted to improve the value and efficiency of designing and building.
Heyworth, who is general manager of Box Living, believes the problem with custom-designed architectural buildings is often the length of time they take to produce, their complexity and their uncertain cost. Box Living designs are well-thought out in terms of all the construction and design detailing to achieve far greater efficiency – and affordability. They come in various modular sizes.
“It’s kind of like playing with Lego,” says Heyworth. “It’s modular, so you just put it together like building blocks. A lot of the design work has already been done, and our builder can just fit it together for each site.”
Clients work with architect Tim Dorrington who configures and stacks the modules to suit the site for passive solar design. He also works with the client on interior details like the kitchen, bathrooms, material finishes, lighting and so on. Continue reading.
