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Welcome to Learn More. In these pages we go in depth into some of the technical aspects of MSA engineering, architecture and design.

technical     spacial    awards    architects

Technical 

MSA the new architecture starts with new engineering. Here are some details explained.

engineering

Cladding:
MSA homes have a unique cladding system (patents pending). The walls and doors are constructed from toughened glass and are triple-glazed, sheer and seamless. They can be ultra-clear, coloured (opaque - blocking all light), translucent, printed, textured, electronically switchable, or any mixture of variables. MSA uses self-cleaning glass and to maximise thermal performance we use triple-glazed exterior walls with double Low-E treatment.

Roof:
The whole roof including the gutters, parapet & soffits is a one-piece 316 stainless steel membrane (wall-to-wall) with no penetrations (including fixing) ensuring a very long maintenance-free life. This is another world-first innovation from MSA.

The Membrane:
The complete outer membrane of the house is designed by engineers for an extremely long maintenance-free life. The construction uses permanent maintenance-free materials: 316 stainless steel (marine grade), 316 stainless bolts, self-cleaning glass and permanent extruded silicon-rubber seals. The house also provides a permanent humidity-sealed interior allowing for perfectly conditioned air for temperature, humidity and purity.

Plumbing:
The plumbing system is entirely 316 stainless steel including supply, waste and effluent pipes. All waste and water pipes have high-pressure testing to ensure that they will never leak. The plumbing is completely hidden from view but still easily accessible.

Structure:
Structural engineering has also had a complete rethink. The house has been designed to withstand natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and high winds. It’s tough, using structural sections similar to what is used for multi-story buildings. All the structural steel is internal and protected from the weather. Even so, to be sure of permanency, they are zinc metal-sprayed, so will never rust or deteriorate. 

Architectural design:
MSA has gone to extraordinary lengths to create a pillar-less house both around the outside walls and internally. This gives the maximum opportunity for large open spaces or to design the interior walls without structural constraints of any sort which enables future changes to the internal layout to be made easily. This also gives considerable latitude for indoor-outdoor flow with unconstrained positioning and size of external doors and openings.

Elevation:
All MSA houses are sited on piles (whether single or multi-storey).
Being a piled house means that much less site preparation is required and many more options exist for difficult sites: steep, rocky, uneven or unstable land, swamp, sand, or even over water, whilst minimising the disturbance to the natural terrain. The piles are primarily located on the outer edge of the house only which means all floor plates are a single span from edge to edge.

Because structural engineering is already done, this allows a considerable future opportunity for a basement or garage. Or, as the house is designed for a 3m elevation, it is very economical to add a whole new lower level. 
Being elevated from the ground eliminates issues of coldness, dampness and leaks which provides a healthy dry warm home forever and added protection from flooding. The homes are structurally designed to be at an elevation anywhere from 3cm to 3mtr allowing many options from capturing the view to preserving native bush.

Maintenance:
All services such as plumbing and power run under the floor and are easily accessible

Smart:

MSA offers all the home automation options that you may want. Standard and optional systems can be operated from any device. The system controls and/or monitors: lighting, climate, blinds and curtains, sunlight, energy and consumption, entertainment, communications, doors and locks, air and water.

Energy:

Energy is a hot topic, but it is also something that can easily be solved on an individual basis. For MSA it’s very simple, just provide more free energy than what you, the house and a couple of EVs consume. We call this an active house. Unlike a passive house that attempts to use as little energy as possible and hence has to compromise on a multitude of comfort and environmental factors, MSA believes it is better to invest in ample alternate energy from the start, so all MSA houses provide this, primarily with photo-voltaic cells (solar panels). This isn’t an option, it’s another new normal. Based on the average energy consumption in New Zealand homes the MSA house supplies about twice what you need. The excess provides EV charging, the peace of mind of not having to worry about energy use (ever), and because MSA houses are grid-tied, there’s plenty left to send back to the grid repaying the embodied energy used to create the house and a possibility of a cheque from the power company every month to boot.

Home Batteries:
The MSA way means you don’t always need batteries. The grid becomes your battery storage effectively. So long as you put more into the grid than you take out, you are energy and carbon-neutral and contributing to the reduction of burning fossil fuels and carbon emissions.

Materials

Sustainable materials:
MSA only use environmentally sustainable building materials. All materials used are sourced from sustainable resources. Material used is recyclable forever. They can be sustainably recycled over and over endlessly, either by artificial means or naturally. This is often called a circular system which is part of a circular economy (see below) The construction materials that we use are: zinc metal-sprayed construction steel, stainless steel, toughened glass and reinforced concrete. We have paid great attention to using them in a way that feels warm and inviting and a little minimalist to allow the maximum opportunity for you to create your preferred style. Not only are these primary materials environmentally sustainable, but they also offer substantial benefits otherwise and are our new normal.
Steel, glass and limited concrete are made from the most abundant materials on the planet: iron, silica and gravel, so there's no shortage, and no risk of exhausting the supply because all are reusable, recyclable, natural and will return to earth with minimal environmental damage. Mining of these materials causes minimum and very localised damage only, which can be returned to its natural state quickly and easily leaving no discernible trace of human intrusion.

Durability:
Heavy steel sections, toughened glass, and stainless steel window frames make for a strong, almost indestructible house offering high protection from earthquakes, flooding and extreme weather conditions.

Maintenance:
The complete external membrane: roof, walls, window frames and underfloor weather shields are made from 316 stainless steel, self-cleaning toughened glass and permanent extruded silicon rubber seals, providing the maximum possible protection from the elements and maintenance-free for an expected 100 years plus.

Steel:
Despite a growing population steel production is close to reaching ‘peak production’. This means, ultimately, that it won't be very long until we have all the steel that we will ever need because it is recyclable, indefinitely. A similar story exists for glass.

Carbon use:
In respect to the energy needed to make these materials: Concrete, steel and glass are medium-energy materials not much different to timber and far less than plastics and aluminium which are 5-10 times more energy use. This means the MSA house can repay the embodied energy much faster, rendering it energy and carbon-neutral within about 5 years of construction.

The Circular Economy
 

A circular economy is restorative and regenerative by design and aims to keep products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times. The concept distinguishes between technical and biological cycles.

As envisioned by the originators, a circular economy is a continuous positive development cycle that preserves and enhances natural capital, optimises resource yields, and minimises system risks by managing finite stocks and renewable flows. It works effectively at every scale.
source: Ellen MacArthurfoundation

Architectural design

The simple, minimal blank canvas that our homes offer allows the interior of the house (or individual rooms) to be far more ‘you’ with furnishings and finishes: wooden floors, antiques, paintings, high-tech entertainment, drapes or whatever is desired. The exterior can also be simple or highly personalised: Ultra-clear walls or: smoky, coloured, textured, printed, even in-filled walls (filling the transparent and sealed wall cavity with any substance, limited only by your imagination, such as swirling or bubbling liquids etc. ad infinitum. Anything is possible and easily changed.

The optional home entertainment system and mood lighting allow you to choose from the library, and create or save any colourful, ambient, exciting, busy, minimal, fast, slow, conservative, romantic or high-tech environmental mood you want.

Welcome to the new normal.

Spatial

MSA has focused great attention to details, health aspects, climate, living comfort and spatial design. You can read more about all that here.

Space

MSA style is minimal and functional, offering calm and peace, a haven in an otherwise complex and busy world. MSA homes aspire to connect with the outdoors bringing beauty of nature right into the home if desired, but still giving you all the control. The MSA home provides the opportunity to connect with the elements and experience the changing weather patterns and natural (or created) surroundings like never before within the comfort and warmth of your own home. Not just watching it through a framed window, but enjoying the sensation of being immersed in it, whilst retaining the control to block it out. The heavy triple glazing will block almost all sound from the outside and the insulated double-glazed internal walls will soundproof any room from the rest of the house, allowing absolute quiet or undisturbed audio enjoyment of your favourite artist, movie, TV or one of the many sound moods provided by the home automation system such as wind, rain, ocean, birdsong etc. Or go natural and open everything up to enjoy the natural sounds from outside or the laughter of children.
It’s all at your (touch/voice) control. The new normal.

Breath

Our houses are humidity sealed allowing no unwanted moisture or condensation and provide conditioned and highly filtered air at your control, so they’re warm and dry. MSA homes are mould, toxin and allergy-free zones and as such are the most suitable homes available for people afflicted with hay fever and respiratory problems such as asthma etc. The air inside will be healthier than the air outside. They are exceptionally well-insulated with triple-glazing and floor insulation.
The concrete floor is elevated from the ground on piles and can be warmed by free solar heat transfer. Concrete is an effective material for holding heat (or cold) especially when it’s well insulated. The house will possibly require no other heating for the most part.
Humidity and temperature can be controlled and monitored for individual rooms providing the most comfortable and personalised environment possible. All forced air is fresh from the outside, there is no recycled air. Energy is saved with a state-of-the-art heat recovery system that transfers heat (or cold) from the outgoing stale air to the fresh incoming air. Low-volume vents on each side of the bed/s provide controlled cooled air to simulate that of an opened window and thus conserve the ambient warmth in the bedroom or house generally. This is the new normal. 

Among other innovative features, chilled tap water can be provided on each side of the bed, satisfying that much-desired pure cool water without having to traipse to the kitchen.

Of course, you can also open everything up to the outside, much more so than other homes with very large double doors (3M x 3M opening) and disappearing exterior walls or multiple walls providing the ultimate in indoor/outdoor living.
 

More time

An MSA home offers more financial freedom and gives you more time. MSA is dedicated to providing low-cost high-value homes without compromising quality. The MSA home is maintenance-free, with no more expensive plumbing bills, house painting, roof repairs etc. Never again will you get a power bill or water charges. The savings easily allow you to invest in an electric vehicle (EV) and likely never again will you have to pay for petrol, and vehicle maintenance costs will be far less than petrol cars. You will have more time for the things that matter. Zero maintenance, self-cleaning surfaces and automated functions free your time for the fun things in life. This is living in the 21st century – the new normal.
 

Future thinking

MSA welcomes you to living in the 21st century. Through innovation and investment, we are dedicated to improving the quality of homes and the quality of living for people now and in future generations. All MSA homes are designed for sustainability in more ways than one: timeless design, durability and affordability. We believe our homes will stand the test of time, and function and look as good in the future as they do now.

MSA homes are future-proofed, timeless architecture, designed for easy and inexpensive upgrades, add-ons, and extensions, and because they are easily transportable, trade-ins. 

Awards

2014: NZ Innovator Awards. Finalist  Innovation Council of New Zealand

2014: NZI Sustainable Business Awards: Finalist in 3 categories.

2017: MSA One-System was awarded CodeMark certification.
Certifier: Beal
Certificate Register

Status: pending renewal

Architects

New Zealand offers some of the most outstanding architecture in the world and MSA is pleased to be able to offer our architects a new found freedom in construction.
If we can help build your clients dream building, please don't hesitate to get in touch.