Pepper Residence

Existing floor area: 110m2                              New floor area:  254m2 Designer:               Tony Biesiek – Imagine Building Design Interior Design:      Imagine Building Design and Owner Engineer:               Dorrien Andrews – Westpoint Consulting Engineers Builder:                  Pepper Construction The brief for this house was to alter and extend the existing cottage which was a jumble of styles into a modern family home with a Pasifika theme to show their collection of sculptures and artwork from around the Pacific. Good outdoor living and maximising the sea and bush views were top priorities. All with excellent sustainable design focusing on the 5 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Replace, Recycle and Rethink. Reduce: Achieved with solar hot water heating, photovoltaic solar energy collectors with inverter to the network grid, wetback wood fire, inverter heat pumps, eco & LED lighting. R4 ceiling and R2.5 wall insulation, argon filled thermally broken aluminium windows. Water consumption reduced through low flow fittings.  Reuse: 75% of the existing wall framing and subfloor retained. Replace: The flooring is sustainable bamboo. The macrocapra cladding, eucalypt deck and sarking are all from sustainable locally milled plantations.  Numerous native plants have been planted, far in excess off those removed for site clearance. Recycle: The insulation is 100% recyclable polyester. There is a recycling station for refuse.   Rethink: The whole process of decision making for design and construction to this home brought about a total rethink. Eg: selection of board lengths, waste skip usage and the use of rain water storage for irrigation. Also low embodied energy principles such as the custom designed metal cladding run locally saving on over 5 hours freight from an out of town supplier.