Award-winning passive tiny house is insulated to combat New Zealand's weather

Completed in 2018, the Kirimoko tiny house was inspired by a minimalist cycling trip. After previously living out of his bicycle packs, the owner decided to downsize his living conditions by commissioning a 329-square-foot, one-bedroom tiny home in Wanaka, New Zealand. The design features a gabled form with a black rain screen, passive house measures and structural insulated panels.

black gabled tiny home with one wall of glass

Thanks to the efficient insulation, the house requires virtually no additional energy to maintain comfortable temperatures, despite the New Zealand alpine climate.

light and dark wood tiny home with gabled roof

gabled tiny home with double-height, narrow window

Architect Barry Condon of Condon Scott Architects utilized each nook and cranny to get the most out of the minimal square footage without compromising scale, so no amount of space is wasted. A double-height volume and a glazed facade help make it feel more airy and spacious, as well.

double-height room with gray and white sofas, wood coffee table and patterned rug

double-height room with gray and white sofas, wood coffee table and patterned rug facing a small white kitchen

“At first I thought it was a bit ambitious — a 30-square-metre footprint isn’t very much space to fit a kitchen, bathroom, sleeping and living space,” Condon said. “I actually tried a few times to make it a little bit bigger, but the client would always push back and try to make it smaller, which was interesting for me because normally with clients I am the one trying to reduce size! Ultimately we landed on a happy medium.”

gray coffee table near a wall of glass

double-height tiny home with a wall of glass and a gabled roof

The tiny home has a kitchen with a full-sized fridge, a bedroom and a separate living space with room for two large couches and a coffee table. Outside, larch weatherboards help to keep out moisture during heavy rains and asphalt shingles add to the functionality of the exterior. Natural ventilation is achieved through minimal openings on the eastern, southern and western sides of the home, and structural insulated panels were chosen for the roof and walls for their high insulation value. The client has reportedly only needed a ceiling fan and a small portable heater to regulate the temperature on extreme weather days. The home has received the NZIA 2019 Southern Architecture Award and a Bronze 2019 DINZ Award.

+ Condon Scott Architects

Images via Condon Scott Architects

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Welcome to my Vlog about the environment and general news related to it. The advancement of technology and the expansion of the human being are inevitable and an essential mark left by progress as a race, but it is important in the process not to lose respect for the environment and the world in which we live. Become aware of its deterioration as an initial measure to begin to become aware of how to take care of it. For these reasons, our little grain of sand as a contribution to an ecological blog in which we offer you the latest Internet news as a reference so that you can inform yourself and become aware of it. In the articles you can find the respective news sources and most current magazines on which the subject in question is being addressed.

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