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Flexi House: The convergence of architecture and industrial design leads to an inspired modular building system.
A good industrial designer ignites creativity, pushes boundaries, and crafts elegant solutions that redefine innovation. André Heller of New Zealand’s Flexi House is uniquely positioned to meet these three key criteria while developing the modular building system that underpins Flexi House. (main pic: Flexi House modular building system installation at Cromwell, New Zealand.)
Heller’s road to modular building started in London, where he worked with a multidisciplinary architecture practice specialising in systems and DfMA (design for manufacture and assembly), exposing him to the profession of balancing aesthetics, functional designs, and creating inspiring and sustainable spaces. It was a natural progression for Heller to merge his industrial design background with the principles of good architecture, shaping Flexi House’s modular building system.
Located in Wellington, Heller’s Flexi House was launched in 2022, featuring their standardised and repeatable modular building system formed from a kit-of-parts.
“We’ve actually designed a system; it’s never been about creating one house. It’s about creating a system that is flexible and allows us to create unique typologies or unique design outcomes for clients or projects. It’s a system of rules, but it gives us the flexibility to create anything that’s required,” Heller told Built Offsite.
Flexi House’s first building typology is a single-story house for greenfield developments or standalone, which can range from one to five bedrooms. From there, Flexi House will develop their modular building system for new typologies that can scale to two-storey houses and townhouses, with mid-rise buildings on the horizon.
“We really wanted to create the system and not individual dwellings.”
A key feature of their modular building system, according to Heller, is its thermal efficiency.
“We’re building higher than the minimum building code, sitting in a space between a high-performance building and passive house. So, we’re high performance, really well-insulated, airtight, and using all of the same detailing effectively as a passive house would for the same sort of construction,” commented Heller.
Interestingly, recent thermal modelling completed by VIA architecture (Passive House architects) on Flexi House’s show home in Cromwell found that it was 46% more thermally efficient than the same building built to the new H1 standards of New Zealand’s Building Code. A further pre-line blower door test of the Cromwell show home performed during construction by Pro Clima (a supplier of sealing membranes) measured 1.29 air changes per hour. A ‘typical’ new build normally measures 3-5 air changes per hour.
