RTA Studio’s Carbon-Neutral C3 House is New Zealand’s First Win at World Architecture Festival

New Zealand’s <a href="http://www.rtastudio.co.nz/">RTA Studio</a> was honored this weekend at the <a href="http://www.worldarchitecturefestival.com/news-detail.cfm?newsId=274">World Architecture Festival</a> with the <a href="http://www.worldarchitecturefestival.com/shortlist_detail.cfm?projectSubCategoryId=677&amp;eventYear=2012">Future Projects – House</a> prize for their <a href="http://inhabitat.com/zero-energy/">carbon-neutral</a> C3 House in Wanaka, New Zealand. This sustainable, rural single-family home impressed the judges and makes RTA Studio the first New Zealand firm to be honored at the festival since it began 5 years ago. This home is a prototype for a carbon-neutral house set on a very remote and complicated site, and RTA Studio pushed the project to meet stringent environmental regulations.

The C3 House is designed to be visually unobtrusive and environmentally sensitive. The house is in the Emerald Bluffs subdivision on a site in the Southern Lakes region of New Zealand.

The home is integrated right into the landscape and outdoor living spaces help to allow the family to interact with the dynamic natural surroundings of this region of New Zealand.

The construction of the house is to include local stones in Gabion Baskets, local renewable timber, and rammed earth construction in order to limit the use of steel, cement and glass.

Construction techniques like rammed earth construction also helps to keep the energy consumption of the home to a minimum because of rammed earth’s highly efficient thermally insulated properties.

The interiors of the home are wonderfully extended outdoors through the use of large glass windows, which also help to daylight the building.

The home is a permanent single family residence for a family of four, and will include a two-car garage, gym, 2 guest bedrooms, and two living areas.

The home will also use low energy lighting and appliances and electricity will be generated by photovoltaic cells. The hope is that at the end of the house’s life, the entire building can be recycled!

Not only did the project strive to meet the maximum score per the regulations of the Trust, but the house also is trying to achieve triple carbon-neutral status. This triple status includes zero carbon emissions for the operational energy use, the total material manufactured, and the waste at the end of its lifecycle.

New Zealand’s <a href="http://www.rtastudio.co.nz/">RTA Studio</a> was honored this weekend at the <a href="http://www.worldarchitecturefestival.com/news-detail.cfm?newsId=274">World Architecture Festival</a> with an award for their C3 House in Wanaka, New Zealand. This sustainable, energy efficient, rural single family home impressed the judges and won for the Future Projects – Houses category, making this the first award that any New Zealand firm has won at the festival since it began 5 years ago. This home was a prototype for a carbon-neutral house set on a very remote and complicated site, but achieved more than most designers could have because of RTA Studio’s push to meet stringent environmental regulations