Responding to New Zealand’s low housing productivity, especially in the wake of the earthquake in Feb. 2011 in Christchurch that destroyed thousands of homes, Dan Tremewan’s prefabricated homes are the first to be constructed with lightweight timber panels and cross-laminated solid wood from locally grown douglas fir and pine.

As MHProNews reported March 14, 2011, the panels are insulated with New Zealand wool, according to stuff-co-nz, for the homes Tremewan calls Welhaus, which are flat-packed in shipping containers and assembled on site.

Styles range from family-sized homes to studios, hillside to beachfront, mobility accessible to apartments, on top of another structure or slotted together to form a larger dwelling.

The low-energy designs will be marketed locally by Realtor Harcourts, but Tremewan, with a background in finance and property development, is considering offshore markets. The homes are currently contracted out, but he intends to open his own factory, perhaps in Christchurch. ##

(Image credit: stuff-co-nz–the Welhaus Alpine Abode by Tremewan)

(Submitted by Matthew J. Silver to Daily Business News-MHProNews)