With over 15 years of experience, residential building company Modern Homes in Wellington are focused on building eco-friendly, architecturally designed homes. They undertook the construction of this home designed by Denis Chin from Three Line Studio on a steep site in Wellington’s western suburbs in 2018. 

The brief required the house to efficiently maintain a consistent indoor temperature of 18 to 20 degrees Celsius. This was achieved by enhancing the thermal performance including a measured airtightness target for the building envelope to avoid needing a significant heating or cooling system.

Rob Pavan, Director of Modern Homes, stated, “A critical part of trying to achieve this performance would be limiting the air changes in the house to less than one change per hour.” (1ACH50).

Modern Homes collaborated with Pro Clima to ensure the correct installation of the specified INTELLO PLUS air barrier system, arranging on-site training and demonstration sessions with follow-up including liaising over specific details.

"The home is quite architectural with extensive glazing on the northwestern elevation, Air leakage can occur through window and door joinery, especially items such as sliding doors.” Rob explained. Additionally, the house was built over multiple levels with several complex construction junctions.

Once the air barrier was installed, the system was tested using a WINCON fan on loan from Pro Clima which allows the contractor to depressurise the building, inspect and detect any airflow indicating areas requiring improvement. This quality assurance process was followed by a Blower Door test utilising the Minneapolis blower door kit to quantify and document the envelope air tightness. The final door blower test exceeded expectations, achieving an air change rate of 0.6 changes per hour (0.6ACHn50).

Rob reflected on the success, “It was a real achievement and testament to a great team whose interest in a new product, attention to detail, and patience during the installation process enabled this result.”

With the project nearing completion, the home has already demonstrated its performance, maintaining a notably more comfortable internal temperature even during colder weather. Rob concluded, “We’re confident the principles and quality of this type of building are the way forward for more energy-efficient and healthier homes.”

From Pro Clima’s perspective, it’s great to work with specifiers and builders whose brand, ethos, and end product are aligned with ours — creating good buildings that are fit for living.