Intelligent Home in the Country
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When you're designing and building six to seven hundred new homes a year you learn a thing or two about how to plan a home intelligently and how to use the client's budget intelligently to create the homes that they really want. “We certainly aren't in the business of selling one-size-fits-all houses”' says Jennian Homes General Manager. “Great homes are built on great builder-client relationships. Every house is made to measure after a detailed consultation and planning process that helps our clients to consider exactly what is most important to them in a home and where their money will be best spent. Every family has different priorities. Our planning process gives them all the options and helps them to make the right decisions so that their expectations can be met on their budget. It also means that once everything is planned (right down to choosing the colour schemes and door handles and whiteware), they can relax then simply walk into their new home when it's completed.”
 When Jennian decided to build a new showhome in Pukekohe they put themselves through that same rigorous planning process, wearing two hats – client and builder. The finished home will definitely encourage people to reconsider their own expectations of what a home should deliver. “We wanted to build a home that would show people what was possible – a home that would inspire people to think outside the box, and look towards the future,” says Deane Sanders, Jennian's Counties-Manukau Manager. The house has been built in keeping with future-proof building principles. These encompass factors such as energy efficiency, flexible space management, building health and safety, sound control, building automation and security, quality assurance and life-cycle costing - all factors which have been identified as being increasingly important to maintain the value of your home in the future.
“We chose Linea® Weatherboard as the main exterior cladding because of its strong shadowlines and ability to be painted in a dark colour. We've combined it with flat plaster areas and Stutex. It's a dramatic combination. You get the shadowlines of Linea contrasting with the flat plastered surface, with the Stutex adding another texture. People are tired of brick boxes, they're looking for more interesting cladding combinations that still offer low maintenance,” says Deane.“
The use of a combination of low maintenance cladding materialsis becoming a distinctive feature of contemporary New Zealand architecture. Inside, the house has also been designed to break with the norm and to show what is possible when intelligent design is applied. At 232 sqm this is not an exceptionally big house, but there is a sense of spaciousness and flow which belies the actual metreage. The main open-plan living area opens up through bi-fold doors at either end onto courtyards - to create airy summer living. In the winter a Masport gas fire in the centre of the room creates a compelling and cosy focus. The three bedrooms and two bathrooms are contained in a separate wing, connected by a hallway, glassed on the northern side, which not only floods the hallway with light, but also creates passive solar heating, cutting power bills. Read more articles relating to this story....
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