Where eco-friendly function meets award winning architectural form

Since its inception Bob Burnett Architecture has established a reputation for award-winning, high performance hill homes and environmental design. Bob’s own epic home on the Port Hills was a testing bed for innovative sustainability and design ideas that were subsequently incorporated in future designs.

Most designs are a fusion of ideas from the two directors Bob Burnett and Shizuka Yasui which express influence from both Japanese and New Zealand Architecture. When we consider Japanese architecture, we think tranquillity, harmony, natural materials, efficiency and smart detailing. They are the masters of tight spaces, creating the illusion of spaciousness while working with a compact footprint.

The practice’s core philosophies include design for comfort, functionality and delight to provide the best possible living experience; optimizing building performance within the available budget; providing value for money when considering upfront costs, ongoing costs and return investment. It has an affinity for solar and passive house principles and aims to encourage quality over quantity with the belief that if you can master a cleverly designed compact home, then a big budget home is a cinch.#Following the earthquake Bob instigated Quakestar, a rating system for a building’s performance in earthquakes and has also been supportive of Homestar, a 1 to 10 rating tool for energy, health, comfort and environmental attributes.

Bob is a recognised industry spokesperson, who has championed better building standards, some of which are demonstrated in the country’s first 10 Homestar home. This modest size house on a small site was designed as a demonstration project for the SUPERHOME movement. The movement’s focus is on providing the open source sharing of innovative design ideas, technologies and building techniques; connecting experts and leaders in the industry with each other and the wider community.

Founded by Bob and Martin Reilly, SUPERHOME movement is a not-for-profit industry group creating a paradigm shift for home owners, builders and designers, triggering behavioural change in decision making.

At the launch of the SUPERHOME movement and the first 10 Homestar home approximately a year ago, Lianne Dalziel, Mayor of Christchurch, said it was exactly what the Christchurch rebuild needs. The SUPERHOME movement’s activities have led to bigger projects with Bob being engaged as an advisor, then designer, on City Council social housing with several private developers, initiating large multi-unit Eco Village developments with minimum Homestar ratings of 6 and 7 stars. These will be the largest clusters of Homestar 6 and above homes in the country.

Sponsored by the Christchurch City Council and Build Back Smarter, the Exemplar Homes Tour opened up seven houses by various SUPERHOME movement participant companies for the public to view during the weekends of May.

Word of mouth and social media created a ground swell of awareness with approximately 3000 people visiting these Exemplar Homes. The public were able to enjoy and experience these homes first-hand and also be introduced to the techniques required to achieve a warmer, dryer and healthier home.

The interest has been phenomenal with 50 companies now participating in Christchurch, while September 2016 saw the successful launch of the movement in Auckland and Wellington. The Exemplar Homes Tour is already geared up for May 2017 in Christchurch with other cities to be confirmed.