Pushing innovation at Busby Street

Busby Street is the first of a four-project Kāinga Ora research and development programme which combines OSM technologies to enable the delivery of homes manufactured to a factory level quality.

Innovation is one of the key priorities in Building Momentum – our construction plan for future homes.

The three-level walk-up apartments contain 18 two-bedroom transitional homes built using Cross Laminated Timber (CLT). This is a building system which Kāinga Ora has been among the first to adopt extensively in New Zealand.

CLT uses timber panels which are manufactured off-site, are fast to install and are 100% renewable. At Busby Street, further innovations were incorporated by using engineered light timber frame panels and pod bathrooms and laundries.

The factory-built bathrooms and laundries have the potential to improve quality, while streamlining the design and delivery processes.

What’s more, the homes far exceed Building Code standards for warmth, dryness and health. Since July 2019, all Kāinga Ora built state homes have been constructed to a New Zealand Green Building Council 6 Homestar rating.

A Curzon Street development in Onehunga recently achieved a 7 Homestar rating. Busby Street is anticipated to be our first OSM development to achieve the same rating.

The development is a collaboration between XLam, the CLT manufacturer, Concision, who supply the engineered panels and bathroom and laundry pods, RM Design, the architect, and Miles Construction, the build partner.