Existing stock for the future: problems, opportunities and strategies for energy upgrade of 1940–1960 state housing in New Zealand

A large part of current New Zealand housing stock was built before compulsory home insulation was introduced in 1978. In recent years, the low energy efficiency of these older houses has aggravated significantly existing issues of health inequality, fuel poverty and building decay. As they will constitute a significant portion of future housing stock, their retrofit provides a logical option to meet present and future environmental imperatives and to tackle the most urgent health issues of a country with the second highest incidence of asthma in the world. State housing, in particular, includes a relevant portion of problematic buildings, which are cold and damp, often with evidence of mould growth. A consistent and significant cohort of them was built between 1940 and 1960, under the government-funded social housing scheme introduced in 1937 by the Labour Party administration. These houses, built with the iteration of few similar types, good quality materials and sound construction prove to be suitable candidates for effective energy upgrade interventions. Drawing on results of long term research on State housing ecoretrofitting, carried out at the University of Auckland, this paper discusses meaning and value of conservation and energy upgrade of this large State housing cohort built until 1978, threshold to the new era of building energy performance policies in New Zealand