Waikanae Solar Home
This three-bedroom house in the Rahana Way eco-community in Waikanae demonstrates the flexibility of active solar architecture. Bedroom and living room wings, split by the glazed entrance lobby, have extensive north-facing timber windows. These allow winter sun to irradiate the polished concrete floor for passive thermal heat. Automatic opening high-level windows in both wings moderate the temperature.
Innovative gabion rock walls trap heat that rises across the external face of the windows and reduces convective heat loss from the double glazed units. This makes them effective insulators on frosty mornings.
Photography by Alastair Murray