Inquiry worlds/Ecohome & Design/KāingaLab
Specialist platform · Ecohome & Design
KāingaLab
How can we design a home that works for people and place?
The platform for Ecohome & Design, where fair tests of materials and functional home models come together.
In development: This section introduces the platform. Its tools are still being built.
Not working yet
There is no KāingaLab software yet. This page describes what the platform will do and its role in Ecohome & Design. Nothing here can be used, saved or submitted. Until it is built, the Ecohome & Design unit runs with classroom equipment and paper records.
What KāingaLab will support
The platform is being built around what students actually do in Ecohome & Design, across all four areas of the learning pathway.
- 01
STEM Investigate
What evidence can we gather?
- Design and conduct a fair test to compare thermal conductivity or insulation across different materials.
- 02
Think & Create
What explanations, models or designs can we construct?
- Use a design framework to analyse an existing home design and generate ideas in response to a design brief.
- 03
Make & Test
How can we test or improve them?
- Build a functional model to test material and construction choices before committing to a final design.
- Test performance properties directly.
- 04
Share & Impact
What can we communicate, decide or contribute?
- Justify material and construction choices using evidence from testing.
- Communicate the design through drawings or models.
The big ideas behind it
- A home is a system of interacting subsystems: thermal, structural and electrical.
- Material properties and construction techniques together determine how well an outcome performs.
- Good design balances user needs, environmental impact and material performance.
Grounded in: Māori housing and pā, colonial housing, railway houses and state housing nationally; local housing history and materials specific to Whanganui.
Platforms are developed in response to curriculum and inquiry requirements, not the reverse.