The show home is part of a master-planned subdivision with an ESD (Environmentally Sustainable Design) and is centred around sustainability, and achieving a Homestar 6 rating which provides assurance that the house will be better quality - warmer, drier, healthier and cost less to run - than a typical new house built to building code.
The modhouse living room. Photo / Simon Cartwright (HDC)
Sustainable design and development refers to maintaining a balance between the human need to improve lifestyles, and preserving the natural resources and ecosystems on which we, and future generations, depend on.
"The idea came about 10 to 15 years ago and it took courage to take a pile of money and invest in the modhouse. I am not aware of anything like it in Hawke's Bay.
"It took us six months to complete the house - which is a prefabricated, sustainable, timber-framed, small architectural house."
John, who believes in the "logs for jobs" credo, hopes to create a series of engineered timber-frame houses which would be suitable to anywhere in New Zealand.
"The modhouse is high-performing and as a concept it is applicable anywhere in New Zealand. I would love to build more in Hawke's Bay."
John strongly believes in offsite prefabrication being the way forward for the speedy delivery of housing in NZ.
"Engineered timber ticks all the boxes as it is grown in NZ sustainably, is a sustainable product, creates logs for jobs and achieves a simple and easy assembly to provide a solution for many structural requirements.
Aerial view of the modhouse dining area. Photo / Simon Cartwright (HDC)
"Modhouse is modular in nature and the elements (modules) of the plan can be moved around to suit the site, so there is an infinite variety of ways modhouse can be configured both in terms of the plan layouts and the materiality.
"It is different from cookie-cutter prefab houses.
"It has high quality architectural merit, and not a traditional prefab. There are hybrid elements to it, it has a series of laminated timber post and beams which are cut off, 4 x 2m grids, and it has kitted parts which go together.
