Charred larch is the superstar of the exterior of Mackit Habitat. Richly textured, dark and mysterious, it is a robust cladding that doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is. Charring timber is an ancient Japanese technique called Shou Sugi Ban, which dates back to the 18th century. Similar techniques have been [...]
A warm roof is a little unconventional, but it solves many common problems. Basically, the difference between a warm roof and a conventional ‘cold’ roof, is that the insulation layer is on the outside of the framing, rather than in the ceiling space or between rafters. The roof cladding is installed directly over the insulation, [...]
The choices in cladding systems appear to be endless. When we start our designs, we have an image in mind of how we would like the building to appear. In Habitat’s case, we were aiming for a striking silhouette of the angular form. Therefore, the cladding had to be: Monolithic or with very subtle [...]
Love it or hate it, Pinterest has its uses. Pinterest is essentially an online scrapbook, where images can be saved (or 'pinned') into groups called 'Boards'. Images can come from a range of sources - scanned, uploaded photos, internet search photos, and perhaps the most popular - from within Pinterest itself. The beauty of [...]
It was an exciting day on site on last Tuesday when Nulook CHB delivered the first lot of our Aluminium Joinery to site. During the design phase of the project, we invested a lot of time selecting products that would ensure that Habitat would be a would be warm, dry and comfortable home. The [...]
We are really excited that 2018 has been a productive year for further extending our reach and knowledge around green building practices. This has been through our affiliation with the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC) and the Homestar framework. Mackit Architecture is incredibly proud to now be the Wairarapa's only accredited Homestar Practitioner [...]
Deliveries have been the theme at Habitat lately, with the roofing from Metalcraft arriving earlier in the month. We are using Coloursteel in the new profile 'Kahu', with the colour Flaxpod. This profile has a double capillary overlap to the side lap which gives a greater weather performance. The sheets have started going up [...]
Like any team working within a dynamic and creative industry, we love watching and following the latest evolutions of design style. Architectural design influences can be both short lived or long lasting along with an on ongoing melding of retro influences in modern design. When it comes to Mackit's bespoke designs, we always incorporate [...]
James Hardie RAB™ Board is a solid fibre cement pre-cladding. It acts a a 'Rigid Air Barrier' - hence the name RAB. This means it's a layer that is sandwiched between the external cladding of the building and the wall framing, generally replacing building paper. For residential builds it is most commonly used for [...]
Greytown has a strong sense of community and belonging, that is unique to out-of-city living; we know our neighbours and can't go anywhere local without a friendly hello to those we recognise, and even those we don't. Greytown, and the Wairarapa, is also an incredibly house and heritage proud community that has a strong [...]
