Our Tower house is a three-bedroom home rising four storeys from a steep wooded Wellington hillside. The clients wanted a design that generated the least disturbance on site to preserve the maximum number of trees. We sought to minimise excavation for the same reason. Vertical stacking of pole-supported floors and decks floating above preserved native flora and the avoidance of any concrete foundations keep the house to a small effective footprint.

The exterior cladding to the tower is long-run colour-coated for simplicity and low maintenance.   The remaining cladding is painted fibre cement.  The active solar design features suspended tiled masonry thermal masses adjacent to north-facing glazing and ducted re-circulation of warm air through three habitable storeys from solar and woodfire heat sources.  Summer cooling is achieved via thermostatically controlled stack ventilation utilising the tower geometry.

Watch this space for more Tower House revelations over the next 12 months!