A current example of this is an apartment in the new Vinegar Lane development in Auckland, which is also the first apartment in the country to achieve an 8-Star Homestar design rating. 

Construction will begin shortly on a four-level building at Lot 4 Vinegar Lane, which features ground-floor retail space and aboveground residences.  The 132-square-metre penthouse apartment has been designed for maximum energy efficiency and material sustainability.  As the first apartment in NZ to achieve an 8-Star Homestar design rating, it has predicted energy savings of approximately 35%–50% compared to a non-green dwelling of equivalent size.  The building has been designed by Toa Architects in consultation with HomeStar Professional Alex Reiche from EnviroSpec.

High quality rigid insulation panels supplied by Forman Building Systems will be used throughout the entire building, including Kingspan Kooltherm K10 FM Soffit Board for ceilings, Kingspan Kooltherm K12 Framing Board for areas between the timber framing, and Kingspan Kooltherm K17 Insulated Plasterboard for the outside walls.

The quality of insulation was “absolutely critical” in helping to achieve the building’s particularly high thermal performance rating, says Alex Reiche from EnviroSpec. Kooltherm Phenolic Foam Insulation’s design flexibility was also an important factor in its selection, with Alex adding, “We needed to maximise energy efficiency, and to do so with other forms of insulation would have meant using a much thicker insulation.”

Another recent example of the problem-solving solutions on offer from Forman is the Hanson Court social housing upgrade in Wellington.  This project, completed in February 2012, involved the retrofit of Kingspan Kooltherm K17 with 25mm insulation and 10mm GIB to all exterior walls of the 105 units across six different buildings.  The result was a significantly improved thermal comfort level for the occupants of the previously uninsulated concrete structures.