What Makes a Home Feel Solid and High-Quality?
4 Things Most Builds Miss
We often think of homes as what they look like — Pinterest boards, magazine articles and sketches. But the reality is that these are really communication methods for explaining what it is we are capturing.
I recently watched the architectural documentary Schindler Space Architect, capturing the works of the architect originally from Vienna, Rudolf Schindler. He became a prominent architect in California in the early to mid 1900s. There was a phrase during that documentary that I made a note to commit to memory. It was the description of the collaboration between Rudolph and his wife Pauline when they built their home known as the Kings Road House.
"He gave form to her vision."
For Schindler, architecture was about space, not an object to be admired from those outside it. It was about how humans worked, moved, experienced and felt in the interior of the homes he designed and built for them.
Fast forward to 2026, we have developed so much more understanding about what we need from our spaces in terms of how we feel and move, to the point where it's been explored and can be measured with building science and its associated tools.
The tricky part of talking about this aspect of architecture is that it is not tangible like sketches on a piece of paper, and the human experience of a space only reveals itself after all the decisions and actions have been made.
So what are 4 things to consider when making your home feel comfortable and high quality?
How your home is put together matters as much as what you choose to make it of. Just choosing highly insulated materials or "high performance" products doesn't work in isolation. How we put things together impacts the quality of the interior environment those materials create — not just from how the interior feels aesthetically, but also from how it feels from a physical body experience. Using building science and standards like Passive House and Homestar, we can consider the physical human body experience in the design stage.
The Building Code and code compliance won't ensure your home will be comfortable. The New Zealand Building Code has no minimum or maximum temperature thresholds that the interior of our homes cannot exceed or drop below. So simply code-compliant homes that have had no consideration given to human comfort can be expensive and hard to heat, humid and damp to exist in, and uncomfortable with overheating. Setting the design parameters to qualify what percentage of time your home's design will overheat, and how much power is needed to heat it to stay between 20–25 degrees Celsius, is critical to ensuring the human experience of your home's spaces is an enjoyable and comfortable one.
Good design with consideration to human comfort has the added benefit of reducing drafts. Improved airtightness also makes internal spaces quieter and more peaceful, and consideration of internal surface temperatures with guaranteed ventilation and adequate temperature levels avoids moisture issues. No more mouldy surfaces or weepy windows.
Early consideration in the design is critical for an affordable solution. I have seen so many people try to make an existing design better. The options to ensure this happens become smaller and more expensive. When the design does the heavy lifting in creating comfortable, high quality spaces that are fit for our human body and our human experience, the solutions are smarter, easier and more affordable.
If you are interested in the process to create a high quality and comfortable home that not only looks good from the outside, but also looks and feels good on the inside, you are welcome to book a complimentary chat. I am happy to explain the process and how it integrates with Passive House and Homestar to guarantee you a quality result.
To book a complimentary call with me and discover whether a Design Consultation is the right next step for your project, simply choose a time that works for you using the link below.
If you’d like to understand exactly how a Design Consultation works, what it covers, and how it can help you start with confidence, you can learn more and book a suitable time here: