Building a Tent or a House?

I sometimes look at how we build houses in New Zealand and can't help noticing the similarities with standing up a tent.

You know the feeling. Waking up early morning in a tent, touching the cold, wet inner surface. Condensation everywhere. The temperature inside barely above the temperature outside. The fabric separating you from the elements doing almost nothing to keep the warmth in.

Now walk into a standard New Zealand home built to the building code. It's not much different.

We've normalised homes that are cold in winter, hard to heat, and expensive to keep warm. We've accepted construction methods that leak heat at every timber stud, every window frame, every junction. We call it "meets code" and treat it as success.

The European Perspective

Working between Europe and New Zealand, the difference is stark. In much of Europe, building standards that we consider "high-performance" here are simply minimum requirements. Continuous insulation, thermal break detailing, triple glazing — these aren't premium upgrades, they're baseline expectations.

I'm not saying every home needs to be built with SIP panels. But it sure makes things simpler. A SIPs envelope gives you continuous insulation with zero thermal bridging, factory precision, and a build time that conventional framing can't match. It's not the only way to build a high-performance home, but it's one of the most straightforward.

New Zealand has the knowledge, the products, and the skilled people to build better. What we need is the will to stop accepting minimum code as good enough.

Previously published on sips.network (2021). Updated for VILA.nz.