Eco-friendly: David Reid Homes Queenstown manager Alistair Smith outside Jason Bartlett’s nearly completed
Jack’s Point home
People building homes in the Wakatipu will soon be deprived of free eco-design advice.
Queenstown eco-designer Christina Newnham has only enough funding for another few weeks – she’ll charge $345 per consultation after that.
Since January 2009, Newnham’s been jointly funded by Queenstown Lakes District Council and the Ministry for the Environment and has provided nearly 100 consultations, she says.
A qualified building surveyor and environmental architect, her main field is advising how to make homes more energy efficient, and identifying savings on water use and building materials.
Name change for agency
A high-end real estate agency based in Queenstown has tweaked its name to reflect its increasing national presence.
Browns Sotheby’s International Realty now becomes New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty.
Browns Real Estate was started in 2005 by Queenstowners Mark Harris and Julian Brown – Brown’s family has been selling property for more than 35 years.
A year later the firm affiliated with premium real estate brand Sotheby’s International Realty, which has about 500 offices in 38 countries.
The company has since opened two offices in Christchurch and one in Auckland, with another also opening in Auckland later this year.
The new name will be internationally recognisable, Harris says.
“A great brand is a necessity, not a luxury, especially in a challenging marketplace,” Brown adds.
The firm is adding a fern and koru motif to its advertising masthead.
Government money stopped in June, Newnham says, so QLDC had a double-or-quits funding dilemma – and it chose to quit. Axing her service was one of numerous small cuts in QLDC’s annual-plan economy drive.
“It’s a real pity,” Newnham says. “Other councils managed to find funding to continue the service.”
One of her clients, Jason Bartlett – building at Jack’s Point – says Newnham’s free service will be missed.
“People don’t build a house every day – to be able to get that advice is really helpful, really useful,” he says.
He appreciated Newnham’s tips, particularly cutting energy costs.
“Simple things like getting rid of recessed lights because you can’t put insulation above them – so that’s almost a conduit for cold air to come into the house or hot air to go out.”
Bartlett was also grateful for advice on using shower domes to prevent condensation, which otherwise creates damp and causes a cold breeze in the shower.
“You stay warm [and] you don’t have to have the water temperature as high,” Bartlett says.
In 2008, the Building Council for Sustainable Development ranked Queenstown-Lakes homes the fourth-worst in the country – with 59 per cent of them potentially creating health problems.
Most local houses face south, away from the sun, Newnham says – and many are on steep sites, constricting natural daylight.
A large proportion of Wakatipu homes were originally summer-only cribs, she adds, but are now lived in year-round.
Her advice makes the biggest difference in new builds, she says, because many of her tips “don’t cost any money”.
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