An Ōamaru-based architectural designer is building a solid reputation for herself, after winning two national awards at the weekend.

Virginia Barlow Architecture (VBA) jointly won two categories at the ADNZ Architectural Design Resene Awards, held in Wellington, last Friday night (October 27) for Heights Whare.

The Wānaka-based passive home also won three awards at the Otago Southland Regional Awards in August.

Regionally and nationally, Heights Whare won the New Home up to 150m² Award, and the Kaitiakitanga Award, which recognises leadership in environmentally responsible architectural design. Regionally it also won the Resene Colour in Design Award.

Virginia describes the home as a successful collaboration between the clients, one of whom is a passive house consultant, the builders, and her team at VBA. 

The winning home is in The Heights subdivision overlooking Lake Wanaka. It's low-energy and has a 100m² “thermal envelope” plus an internal garage.

“It's a small house, two bedrooms, plus a TV snug,” Virginia says.

The clients, one of whom is a passive house consultant, had just moved back from London. 

“So they had a mid-century bookshelf, mid-century table, two pieces of art, and 10 bikes.”

Building on the house began in 2019, and took almost two years to complete.

“We had to build through Covid lockdowns, price increases, and, you know, extended lead times on materials, where the home sat for weeks, and so we just achieved the PHI Low Energy Building Certificate last week.”

Gaining certification is not easy, she says.

“There's lots of testing involved in the construction, and how you build it. I can get really geeky, but I won't.”

The award-winning Heights Whare. PHOTO: Supplied/Mickey Ross

A low-energy home uses about 30kw/hour compared with a standard one, which uses between 200 and 300, she says.

Heights Whare was built to maintain a temperature of 18 degrees all year round, regardless of the temperature outside.

The home was modelled using PHPP (Passive House Planning Package) software, which allowed for tweaking of plans to ensure the optimal house design.

The house exterior is Scoria, a Resene red-brown, chosen with the intention of making the house resemble a Department of Conservation or tramping hut. It took several attempts to get the colour approved with the developers, in a “sea of grey”, Virginia says.

This is the first time she has entered the awards, and it is nice to have recognition and confirmation she is doing the right things.

“You know, you have days where you're constantly battling with council or neighbours of clients. There's lots of things that could deter you from staying in the industry, but when you get feedback like that, it proves that you should be doing it.” 

Virginia started her business in Ōamaru in 2018, and divides her time between here and Wānaka, where she also has an office. 

She now has the help of three staff - experienced technician Logan Johnston, recent graduate Lucy Harrison and personal assistant Lesley Taylor.

Her work between the two offices is about 50/50, she says.

She wants her business to be known for building the most thermally efficient homes possible. It’s something potential clients might not necessarily be aware of when they approach her, but it’s something she encourages them to consider.

“They want a pretty house that looks good, but our design philosophy is giving them the best thermal envelope that they can get. So, I guess people don't really know when they come to us that they're going to get that, but that's what you get. 

“That's the difference between going to a draughtsman and ourselves, is that we will give you the best performing housing.”

It costs about 20 percent more to build a low-energy home, but you save money for a lifetime.

Key to the success of VBA Limited is the team effort, Virginia says 

“So I use this whakatauki, ‘ehara taku toa, he takitahi, he toa takitini’, which is ‘my success should not be bestowed on me alone, as it was not individual success, but success of a collective’. 

“You know, there's me, there's my technicians, there's clients, passive house consultants. It's structural engineers, the builder, you've always got to, like, engage with the builder earlier, it's not at the end, and just give them the drawings, they're through the whole design process.

“So you're doing that with every single job that you're on, so, yeah, I can't do that alone . There's too much going on. . . It's a team effort.”

PHOTO: Supplied/Mickey Ross