Lyndall Hancock has spent a lifetime with a rainwater tank beside the house.
Over the years, t
he Dunedin woman has used water collected from the roof – running down through pipes to a tank beside the house – for cooking, cleaning and even drinking, once strained and boiled.
Now aged 80, Miss Hancock lives in Waverley and still uses rainwater harvested from her latest tank to water the garden.
She told the Otago Daily Times the time was right for the Dunedin City Council to consider offering incentives to urban homeowners wanting to invest in similar schemes.
As well as everyday uses, the tanks promoted water conservation and could help ease pressure on council water services, Miss Hancock said.
The tanks would also be useful as an emergency supply, should earthquake damage in Christchurch ever occur in Dunedin.
“It used to be that houses all had a rainwater barrel. When I was a child, we had that at home. I can’t remember what the water was used for, except that when there was a drought there was always water there for the vegetable patch.
“It’s sensible. We could run out of water as quick as look at you,” she said.
via Water-tank advocate calls for incentives. {Otago Daily Times}
Craig Brown of CBConsult.co.nz contributed this diagram showing a safer configuration for water capture. He mentioned he forgot to include the block of concrete at the bottom of the tank to keep the water slightly alkaline:
There are various options for water tanks, including oval and rounded rectangular tanks as seen in this SHAC(2009) Team Housewise retrofit:
Category: Featured
VisionWest has seen one church grow to provide holistic care and support for all people physically, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually.
The Trust provides housing, a kindergarten, opshop, community care, for the Henderson community in Auckland.
VisionWest Community Trust has been offering community-based services to people in West Auckland since the 1980’s. The Trust was formally incorporated as the Friendship Centre Trust in 1988 in response to a growing desire of the Glen Eden Baptist Church to help those in need in the local community. The Trust started out small with a drop-in centre at the Glen Eden Railway Station as a place where friendships were formed. The Trust responded to the needs present in the community and grew to be one of the largest community based Trusts in West Auckland.
In 2010 the Friendship Centre Trust became VisionWest Community Trust. The name evolved from the Trust’s passion and vision of hope and transformation for families living in West Auckland. VisionWest Community Trust now provides a range of community services to around 7000 individuals and families every year, with a wonderful staff and volunteer base of over 450 people. The Trust is still based out of Glen Eden Baptist Church and continues to grow and respond to needs in the West, with a mission of building hope together.
“At VisionWest we believe that we all need to have a vision and hope for the future. As a community development based organisation, our vision is to build a place of trust and openness where people feel valued and loved.
We believe in the value of holistic care and support and offer an integrated range of services and supports that care for all people physically, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually.”
via Welcome to VisionWest Community Trust – Community Development – Holistic Care and Support – Integrated Services and Support.
VisionWest is part of the Community Housing Aotearoa Network (CHA)
To get started building a community around your church contact: 09 818 0700
“It is not enough to design purely for life safety,” says Auckland architect Barry Copeland. “A resilient house, as well as surviving structurally through an earthquake, needs to continue its function as a family home.”
In response to the Christchurch earthquake, Copeland, working with seismic engineer Barry Davidson and wastewater systems engineer Ian Gunn has developed a concept design for a house providing a high degree of self-reliance in terms of basic essential services – water, energy, drainage.
via The resilient house – National – NZ Herald News.
Categories
Victory Community
Victory, Nelson is a long established inner city suburb. The Victory Community centre combines a school hall, health centre, recreation and social services. The school started out with a vision that to educate a child the entire family must be involved.
“Victory Village, comprising Victory Community Health Centre and Victory Primary School, is a unique example of a community-based support group achieving positive health, social and educational outcomes.
After evolving from a number of health and social services operating randomly out of school meeting rooms in a disadvantaged area of Nelson, Victory Village and the wider Victory community have gone on to attract national attention for the way in which they respond and relate to their community’s needs and aspirations. This has resulted in a more sustainable community, with more effective service provision and families that are more stable and resilient.
Victory Community Health Centre actively promotes and provides accessible health services and programmes to residents, acting as an information and referral hub for 13 different agencies and groups.” >>>
For more information:
Kindra Douglas, communityhealth@victory.school.nz
Categories
The Marsden Park master Plan
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The Marsden Park master Plan.
John wants to see Nelson attract talented people who have a passion for their work and the lifestyle. He is a developer of a large subdivision in Marsden Valley, Nelson, and I have come to get an idea of what he is trying to achieve.
“Nelson’s industries are the four Fs – Farming, Forestry, Fishing, and Foreigners/Tourists” He believes his new subdivision will provide high quality housing to attract and retain the talented workers that are important to help regenerate these industries.
His new subdivision is in sunny Marsden Valley, close to Richmond and Nelson. It is a high quality, higher density development that includes sections for single family homes and sections for multi-unit “comprehensive housing” for seniors.
“People will move to Nelson for work” His development seeks to provide a high quality suburb with rural surrounds. Quantity has been traded for quality, and he has taken pains to develop a utility and roading infrastructure that will be tidy for many years into the future.
“I just had to accept the idea that as a developer I would be seen as money hungry” He has taken a large risk by paying for expense of resource consent, surveying, roading, and utilities. The design had to be carefully considered up front. While a developer might hope for flexibility to change plans midstream to reduce the risk of failure, once a resource consent is obtained, there is little room to move in light of new information or market situations.
And strangely, some ideas generally recognised as good can be received poorly when motives are questioned. Urban design practice generally recommends higher density living, like smaller lot sizes or multi-unit developments. And higher density can be more profitable as well for developers. But for this reason, John feels, plans for higher density living tend to be declined.
John would like to see more testing and advice for developers. “What plants should I have in the swales?” he asks. He wants to do the right thing, but with so many decisions to make, it is impossible to always know what is the best decision.
I thank John for his tour and leave him to lock the gate. He is still waiting for someone to begin to build.
Read More:
Residential sections and land for sale at Marsden Park, in Nelson, New Zealand.
Students from the School of Construction at Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) are helping with the rebuilding of Sir Edmund Hillary’s house as part of their entry into this year’s Sustainable Habitat Challenge.
The old homestead is being relocated to Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate in Otara, Auckland, where it will be rebuilt and become the home for the Sir Edmund Hillary Leadership Institute. The renovated structure will incorporate a number of eco-friendly and sustainable building systems such as rainwater harvesting, double glazing, insulation and solar heating.
MIT students training in construction, electrical, plumbing and landscaping will work on the project that is expected to be completed by mid-2011.
onemana bach
real client, real project, real world
via onemana bach.
This project deeply implements SHAC principles. Students and young people collaborating and communicating to build a better way.
Innovative features to note:
- Off-site build and use of prefab component
- Kitchen and wet areas are very close to each other, minimising pipe length and keeping complexity in one place.
- Windows are nice but a major source of heat loss, and cost. Good design has given this batch an open and airy feeling with only moderate use of windows.
- Plywood internal lining gives several improvements – better acoustics, some thermal storage, and humidity buffering because of the porous surface
- Careful insulation installation – no gaps! – means good performance. Few wires or pipes are disturbing the outside, insulated walls.
- Good choice of durable, long-lasting appliances and furniture
A brief history on the Journey so far
Wintec have been building two to three bedroom houses with students for the last 24 years these houses are then on sold into the community as affordable housing.
The houses were standard transportable gable or hip roofed hardie blank weather board homes.
These houses were great to build with the students covering all aspects of their learning criteria. The houses were also a popular item within the community requiring a waiting list for perspective buyers.
However Wintec wanted to create a new design that embraced the latest building technologies and current building design trends.
This project and philosophy was shared with the students who designed and built the new mono pitch design.
This was a very inspiring project that fed Wintecs build environment and carpentry department’s philosophy of constant improvement.
Reflection of design and materials was constantly discussed and shared with the students and improvements were implemented and constructed.
These changes were a reflection of what was happening in industry i.e. insulation improvements, double glazing, product changes etc.
Moving forward
It became apparent – and some thing as a school we were very interested in – embracing was the growth and awareness of sustainability and energy consumption within the construction industry.
This interest grew and from that interest two projects evolved within Wintec; The Eco Village and our first entry into the SHAC challenge 09.
SHAC house 09 was a one of design designed within the Built environment school by Trevor Wyatt and built environment students. The project journey was shared within the Shac competition website, students, industry and the community.
Eco Village
The Eco village is another sustainable initiative taking place at Wintec and one we are very excited about. Wintec would like to further develop the eco village house design as our entry into the Shac Challenge 2010.
Further reflecting on the Eco Village house design, as a base model, and making ongoing design, material selection and energy consumption improvements will be part of our continuous improvement philosophy.
Goals
With our involvement in the shac project we would like to showcase some of the exciting developments we have made in regards to imbedding sustainable practices in the construction of the eco village and eco houses. We would also like to:
- Make improvements to these developments, (current Eco house design), with student, industry and shac team input. Reflect on the developments made, what was good what was not so good.
- Form closer relationships within the trade departments by sharing an overall goal of sustainable design and practices and imbedding this within are current teaching curriculum.
- Constantly reviewing materials and product use and investigating more sustainable options.
- Creating regenerative communities by;
- Demonstrating new residential house technologies re energy consumption.
- Contributing an improved house design to the student village community. With emphasis on improved material selection bathroom, WC and laundry layout and better use of internal layout where possible.
- Monitoring the Energy consumption of the improved house design and sharing this information for the benefit of the wider community and Shac teams.
- Creating a delightful building with emphasis on its surroundings, colours function and creative use of space.
- Work with industry and community in achieving our goals.
Vision of regenerative neighbourhood
A regenerative community is a sustainably aware community. The power of education and knowledge is the energy source that will regenerate and power communities for a better future.
Creating a student village as a base model for sustainability, energy consumption research, discussion and debate will ultimately promote the awareness and knowledge required to educate communities and the work force of tomorrow.
Creating an ongoing educational process that promotes the benefits and skills required in the regenerative use of energy, waste, water, fuels, construction materials and techniques are all an integral part of building these communities
Site
The construction of the house will be by Wintec pre trade carpentry plumbing and electrical students at the Avalon campus.
The house will be constructed under cover and transportable. Once completed the house will be relocated to the Eco village site to provide student accommodation and to be monitored for its energy consumption
The site has good orientation to the north with the length of the house located on a east to west axis. The ground profile is soft with a high water table requiring a driven pile foundation.
Building Design
The building design is a 100m2 transportable residential home constructed from building materials readily available and common to the current building market.
Emphasis will be on a multipurpose floor plan a design that can; comfortably accommodate a family of four, be used for shared accommodation purposes’, holiday homes, or be adaptable for class room or community type buildings.
One of the key ingredients in the construction of the house will be the services and facilities we will fit the house out with. This is an area essential to energy consumption and an area we would like to research and monitor.
The building design will be true to its roots with its main objective been to ensure we keep with the fundamentals of our current teaching curriculum in light timber frame construction.
The skills and ability required for the construction of the house are to be associated with the student profile and community type labour resource.
Housing Demand
The ultimate goal is to create a building that is affordable energy efficient and have the ability for multipurpose use.The construction process and material selection will be simple to construct .This will allow small rural community; groups with a small amount of skilled labour and collaborative community know how the ability to; be able to afford and construct houses for families, class rooms for schools, and small community buildings.
Another essential ingredient will be the information and educational resources created by reflecting on the journey travelled in creating the house and student village.
This reflection will continue the philosophy of self improvement and will help advice communities on the what, how and why of creating regenerative communities.
Funding the house build
The estimated cost of the house dependent of foundation design is $1.500 – $1.800 per m2
The majority of the construction labour is to be done by students.
Partial sponsorship by eco village industry partners ECCA and WEL energy.
Supplier sponsorship, (currently) Rinnai hot water systems.
Design support from Rod Yeoman, Ros Epsom, Tina Booth .
Design & Build time lines for short term goals
Working drawings Started 26th July and completed by 13th August. Please note any amendments to design may re start the 20 day consent process and delay stamped approval.
Consented drawings completed by 6th September.
Drawings and construction time schedule to suppliers, sub contractors &, associated tutors 6th September.
16th September start ordering house material for a 4th October construction start.
Design & Build time lines for long term goals
Wintec has a long term goal to continue reflecting on current designs and to further improve current eco house designs and shac 2010 entry.
- Concept drawings and collaborative design process completed 08.Sept.2010.
- Working drawings completed 08.Oct.2010, sent to council.
- Working drawings approved 08.Nov.2010
- Working drawings priced, time scheduled and material deliveries programmed by 06.12.2010.
Core Team Members
Tom Malpass – Team coordinator,
E-mail thomas.malpass@wintec.co.nz Ph 07 8348800 ext 8594
Peter Orchard – Construction coordinator, advisor, quality control
E-mail peter.orchard@wintec.ac.nz Ph 07 8348800 ext 8594
Nathan Collins – Design coordinator.
Werner Eisenhower – Plumber & plumbing waste water system coordinator
Tina Booth – Team Architectural Draughts person
Ros Epsom – Team Architect,
Annette Vincent – Team Quantity surveyor embedding sustainability into current curriculum
Rob Sweet – Student village spokesman
Lukas Maree – Team electrician & electrical coordinator
Ian Mayes –Eco house advisor and Hamilton council representative
Students
E-mail thomas.malpass@wintec.co.nz Ph 07 8348800 ext 8594
Peter Orchard – Construction coordinator, advisor, quality control
E-mail peter.orchard@wintec.ac.nz Ph 07 8348800 ext 8594
Nathan Collins – Design coordinator.
Werner Eisenhower – Plumber & plumbing waste water system coordinator
Tina Booth – Team Architectural Draughts person
Ros Epsom – Team Architect,
Annette Vincent – Team Quantity surveyor embedding sustainability into current curriculum
Rob Sweet – Student village spokesman
Lukas Maree – Team electrician & electrical coordinator
Ian Mayes –Eco house advisor and Hamilton council representative
Students
We are starting the design process to retrofit one of our small, transportable office buildings. As it is nearly house-sized, the aim of the retrofit is to showcase a range upgrades possible for Dunedin homeowners to adapt their house to be warmer, more efficient, and to support a range of behaviours.
I work at the Otago Polytechnic, and am interested in discovering the good life. I want to live a delightful, more connected life, enjoying the company of my friends and family. For me living the good life means not feeling the drag of a long term mortgage, or knowing that I will always need to commute far distances in a car, or paying to heat an entire large empty house when I can’t have people over for a party. It means having the time and energy to help others and contribute to my community. Big ups to my friends who are spending heaps of personal energy running for city council or being a leader at their church or community board. The more we see people contributing in those ways, the more we are prosperous as a community.
The building is known as “B-Block” – for the large B on the wall. We will show a few good ideas, and display boards will explain other good options. It will integrate with the Otago Polytechnic Living Campus that shows food production, good transport options, and efficient water use.
Specifically, we want to show good use of sun and renewable energy for heating, good use of durable materials, low energy use in the building, support local food production, and promote water conservation. It will also promote lower overall resource with good design practices. Most importantly, we have to provide a good working space for the Campus Services people who work in the building.
Key to the design process is collaboration and communication. I’ve been advocating collaboration for awhile, but now I hope to practice it a bit more successfully.
“B-block” is the hub on campus for staff, housing the mail room and the
- Demonstrate best-practice sustainable design for Dunedin homeowners and builders
- Show good systems
- Extend OP Living Campus – An outdoor exhibit exploring more sustainable living
So far we have approached a few people on campus, but we don’t have your input yet! If you make a comment below, we will be sure to invite you to our next design review and include your ideas into the mix.
A local Architect graduate, Maria Callau of Puca Designs, has been working with us to help visualise some options for the upgrade.
Based on our initial ideas, she came up with some sketches.
Our current topics for the display boards will focus on these areas:
- Financing
- Consenting – What needs a consent and what doesn’t
- Alternative / Acceptable / Determination
- Preparing documents for the council
- Value – intrinsic, health, re-sale.
- Heating and Warmth
- Windows
- Insulation
- Appliances
- Water
- Waste
- Transport
- Beauty
- Ownership
What else do we need?