15th Annual Home Of The Year Award Announced

MEDIA RELEASE
Friday July 30, 2010

A small, eco-friendly house in Arrowtown designed by Pete Ritchie and Bronwen Kerr of Queenstown’s Kerr Ritchie Architects has been awarded the BMW EfficientDynamics Sustainability Award, part of HOME New Zealand magazine’s annual Home of the Year award.

The BMW EfficientDynamics Sustainability Award celebrates innovation and responsible use of resources in sustainable home design. The Arrowtown house was praised by the judges for its commitment to being relatively small (at 135 square metres), its energy-efficient design, and its sensitivity to its village environs.

The owners’ commitment to sustainability began with their choice of site, nestled closely beside three other houses on the outskirts of Arrowtown, close enough to allow one of the owners to walk to work (the other works from home). In accordance with local requirements, the architects broke up the bulk of the house into three shed-like volumes to enable it to nestle more discreetly on its site. “It was a conscious decision, both environmentally and aesthetically, to avoid building an ‘overweight’ house,” architect Bronwen Kerr says.

Pete Ritchie and Bronwen Kerr win a six-month lease of a BMW 320d for six months as their prize. The diesel-powered car offers impressive fuel efficiency of 5.3 litres per 100km and carbon emissions of just 140g per km. “BMW introduced the EfficientDynamics Sustainability award because it fits with our belief that good design can achieve sustainable goals without compromising performance – in cars or in houses,” says BMW’s Edward Finn. BMW has been named the world’s most sustainable carmaker after topping the auto industry in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the last five years.

The Arrowtown home employs passive solar principles, retaining enough solar heat to keep it warm without other heating on all but the coldest (and cloudiest) winter days. Window and door frames are thermally broken and extra-thick insulation is installed in the walls. A ground-source heat pump (with a bore 120 metres into the ground) is an efficient way of converting energy from the earth into heat for the home.

“Homes all over New Zealand are paying more attention to sustainble principles,” says HOME New Zealand editor Jeremy Hansen, “but this one is a real leader in its field. It shows that sustainable houses not only deliver huge savings in energy expenditure, but that if they’re well-designed, they can also be extremely healthy, comfortable and delightful to live in.”

The home and the other finalists in the Home of the Year award have been featured in a series of stories on TV3’s Campbell Live, after a film crew followed the Home of the Year judges on their journey visiting shortlisted homes around the country.

Of the Arrowtown house by Kerr Ritchie Architects, New York architect Charles Renfro, a member of the judging panel, said: “This house was pleasing for its size and simplicity – it packs a heavyweight punch for such a small house.”

The overall Home of the Year title was won by Stevens Lawson Architects for a house on the shores of Lake Wanaka.

The Home of the Year and the BMW EfficientDynamics Sustainability winner were chosen by a panel of three judges: HOME New Zealand editor Jeremy Hansen, Auckland architect Ken Crosson (winner of the magazine’s Home of the Decade award in 2005), and New York architect Charles Renfro of Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, the firm behind the design of Manhattan’s acclaimed High Line park atop an abandoned elevated railroad.

The Home of the Year is an open entry process that attracts submissions from around the country. In March, the judges chose a shortlist of homes from the entries to visit. In April, they toured the country to visit the shortlisted houses and chose the winner and finalists from among them.

The winning home and the five finalists in the award will be published in the Home of the Year issue of HOME New Zealand magazine, on newsstands August 2.

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