Category: Canterbury

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Canterbury MicroArchitecture

Tiny home a true mansion

Her previous construction experience was a bookcase, but that has not stopped Lily Duval from building her own miniature house.
The 27-year-old is two months into the build, and is on track to have most of the construction finished in another couple of months. She is building her house directly on a trailer on communal land in central Christchurch. At 5.5 metres long, 2.5m wide and 4.2m high, Duval’s house fits under the New Zealand Transport Authority’s definition of a light simple trailer.
It requires no building consent.
Her house will cost $30,000 all up, which includes $8000 for the heavy-duty trailer.
via Tiny home a true mansion – news – the-press | Stuff.co.nz.

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Canterbury MicroArchitecture

Interest growing for tiny homes

Christchurch man Bevan Thomas built his own “tiny house” from scratch last year and had seen “hundreds” through it over the past few months.
He believed the tiny house movement was becoming increasingly popular in New Zealand as people looked for ways to live with less impact on the planet, or to avoid being “tied to a half a million dollar mortgage”.

“There’s been phenomenal interest in it. It’s surprising actually how well the concept is taking off.”
Thomas built his moveable house after returning to Christchurch to look after family and finding himself at a loose end.
via Interest growing for tiny homes | Stuff.co.nz.

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Canterbury MicroArchitecture

Tiny home at a tiny price | Stuff.co.nz

Stefan Cook is revelling in the fact his new home cost $438,000 less than the average Christchurch house price.
Cook has now finished building his 3.4-tonne home, complete with a mezzanine bedroom, living area, kitchen and bathroom. The house measures 8 metres by 2.45m and is 4.1m high.
It was built on top of a custom-built trailer so it could be moved and did not require a building consent.
Cook did not have experience in building but it took him only 12 weeks to get it to a ”liveable” standard.
The building cost $22,000 – an amount he would save within two-and-a-half years by not having to pay rent – and most of the materials were salvaged from demolition sites, which helped keep costs down.
via Tiny home at a tiny price | Stuff.co.nz.

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Canterbury MicroArchitecture

Student thinks small to beat rental trap

Christchurch student fed up with high rental costs is building his own “cottage on wheels”.
Stefan Cook is constructing the 2.5 metre by 8m transportable house in a bid to beat the rising cost of student housing and survive the Government’s withdrawal of student allowances for those undertaking post-graduate study.
The 34-year-old geology student at the University of Canterbury said he had been paying up to $160 for a room in a Christchurch flat during the first two years of his bachelor’s degree and expected his $15,000 project would pay for itself within two years.
via Student thinks small to beat rental trap | Stuff.co.nz.

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10m2 Canterbury Featured MicroArchitecture

Office to rise from the rubble

One person’s rubble might be potential material for Gap Filler’s new office.

Sustainable Habitat Challenge (SHAC) and ReGeneration Trust New Zealand are collaborating to build an office for Gap Filler in Colombo St, Sydenham, with the help of volunteers and as many recycled or sustainable materials as possible.

Gap Filler project co-ordinator Coralie Winn said she was humbled by the plan.

“It’s a very generous gesture that they are doing this for us and also teaching young people building and design skills,” she said.

Gap Filler, which emerged after the September 2010 earthquake, has overseen several urban regeneration projects, such as the Lyttelton Petanque Club, the “book fridge” and the painted-piano project.

It has been based in Winn’s front room.

“Since November, we’ve hired a part-time helper, and people have been coming and going,” she said.

“It will be great to have an office that’s not at home. It would be quite nice to fill a gap with our own office.”

SHAC’s Tim Bishop said the frame of the 10-square-metre office would be built from recycled timber from demolished buildings, and the windows would also be recycled.

Waste polystyrene would be used for insulation, while the external walls would be constructed from wooden pallets usually used for transporting heavy goods.

“We want to show how to creatively reuse material left over from the earthquake. It’s a bit of a test. A few things are going to be new, like nails and building paper,” he said.

The project also aims to show young people that it can be easy and fun to build small buildings with sustainable materials.

Demolition and salvage yards, including Southern Demolition & Salvage, Musgroves and the Window Market Place, are also involved in the project.

The Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology is contributing equipment and helping to find a licensed builder.

The build will take a week, from January 23 to January 28.

Volunteers can sign up here.

 

via Office to rise from the rubble – the-press | Stuff.co.nz.

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10m2 Canterbury MainMenu MicroArchitecture New Zealand

ReGenerating small, sustainable SHACs in the temporarily vacant sites of Christchurch

The ReGeneration Trust and SHAC (Sustainable Habitat Challenge) are keen to get rebuilding Christchurch. In January 2012, we’ll be running a six-day building project – starting from scratch, we’ll be working with builders, architects and a crew of young people to create a funky, recycled, moveable office for the Gap Filler project.
Gap Filler is a creative urban regeneration initiative that aims to temporarily activate vacant sites within Christchurch with creative projects, to make for a more interesting, dynamic and vibrant city. They’ve run a series of awesome projects, like the Lyttleton Petanque Club, Gap Filler Community Chess and the Think Differently Book Exchange.
We’ll be building an office for Gap Filler, using as many recycled and sustainable materials as we can. Our aim is to demonstrate that anyone can build and create, all it takes is some motivation and a few practical tools. We also want showcase the possibilities of holistic sustainability –
small, well insulated, water tight buildings made from a mixture of reused, recycled and sustainable materials.
ReGen and SHAC are now looking for motivated people who are willing to step up, represent and take practical action for positive change. The Christchurch 10m2 Building Project in an opportunity for creative, hands on types to work alongside experts on sustainable building, to learn new skills and share ideas for Christchurch in the future. We’ll be learning new skills each day and putting them into practice building walls, putting up roofs, cladding, internal lining, insulation and painting. And we’ll be documenting the process with stories, film and photographs.
If you’re a young person or a builder and you’re keen to be involved, get in touch! Email lani@regeneration.org.nz or tim@shac.org.nz

Happyzine » ReGenerating small, sustainable SHACs in the temporarily vacant sites of Christchurch.

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Canterbury MicroArchitecture New Zealand Otago

EKOKIT – Modular homes from Ebode & Hybrid Homes

 

 

 
 
EKOKIT is a range of self-build eco houses that have been specifically designed to be flexible, sustainable and within the price reach of ordinary New Zealanders.
EKOKIT homes can be built anywhere in New Zealand, under the supervision of a Licensed Building Practitioner. If you don’t wish to manage your EKOKIT build yourself your EKOKIT is also available as a complete finished home through Planet Homes.
via EKOKIT – from Ebode & Hybrid Homes.

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Canterbury MicroArchitecture Uncategorized

F3 Design’s ArtBox

 

 

 

 

ArtBox aims to provide exhibition and retail space for approximately 100 Christchurch artists, craft practitioners and design retailers who have lost workspace and outlets, through the creation flexible and portable modules, all of which have been locally designed and manufactured.

The project, instigated by CPIT in conjunction with Christchurch firm F3 Design, will begin with 18 modules being placed in and around the CPIT campus, with the hope that with the community’s support it can branch out to support a River of Arts throughout the city.

Pippin Wright-Stow, who co-owns F3 Design with his sister Ella, said the idea was spearheaded by F3 Design employee Andrew Just, who also lectures at CPIT’s architecture school.

The ArtBox modules are a 2.9m cube that allow for the creation of comfortable and highly adaptable spaces. They can be stacked, oriented and arranged in various practical configurations, insulated with wool, and are weather-tight. And because the modules are based around a steel hollow section frame, Wright-Stow said they have are very strong and have the ability to resist loads placed by earthquakes.

They’re not designed for one-off use either. Their unique design allows for multi-functional and multi-purpose use across a number of industries, from artists and jewellers to craftspeople and education institutions, as well as festivals and events.

“The idea is that they can be on-sold and used as commercial or residential dwellings,” said Wright-Stow.

Featuring interchangeable wall and flooring panels, the boxes can be placed on any surface, including concrete and grass.

via Architects and engineers collaborate in solution for displaced artists and designers

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Auckland Canterbury Central North Island Featured MainMenu Napier-Hastings Nelson New Zealand Otago R&D Southland Waikato Wellington

New Zealand Climate Data for Building Simulation

The New Zealand Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) has developed a Home Energy Rating Scheme (HERS) for New Zealand households based on software simulation of energy loss and demand. The software requires hourly data to represent the differentclimates zones around New Zealand, especially for larger population centres. These climate data consist of hourly records for an artificial year created from twelve representative months.
Please note: The data is publicly-funded data provided by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Limited (NIWA) and no person or entity may charge for its supply or use. While NIWA has exercised reasonable care and skill in the preparation and collation of the data files, the data is supplied on an ‘as is’ basis, without warranty of any kind. NIWA accepts no liability for any direct, indirect, special or consequential damages, loss, damage or cost arising from and relating to, any use of the data and/or the information associated with it. Full terms and conditions governing the use of the data can be found at: http://edenz.niwa.co.nz/about/terms.
Liley, J Ben, Hisako Shiona, James Sturman, David S Wratt. 2008. Typical Meteorological Years for the New Zealand Home Energy R ating Scheme. Prepared for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority. NIWA Client Report: LAU2008-01-JBL. NIWA, Omakau, New Zealand.
Files for New Zealand are available in EPW format directly from the DOE site below:
Click on the blue marker to download the efw weather file direct from the DOE Energy Plus web site.

View Larger Map
Files in the TM2 format – for TRNSYS, TRANSOL, etc, have been converted from the EPW files using  CCWorldWeatherGen without performing any climate projections. NZL_TMY_WeatherFiles_TM2
 
 

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Canterbury

Recover heat – Pontos HeatCycle, reusing resources | Hansgrohe International

 

 
Intelligent water cycle for active climate protectionHow ingenious it would be if we could store and reuse the heat from the run-off shower and bath water that we use each day before it disappears down the drain forever! Now you can – with a heat recovery system from Hansgrohe. The Pontos HeatCycle system is the result of years of research. It recovers the energy from the grey water. To this end, the system uses a heat exchanger to extract the heat from the still warm grey water and uses this to heat up cold drinking water. This saves valuable resources, lowers gas or electricity bills and reduces CO2 emissions. Those who use Pontos HeatCycle can reduce their overall energy requirement for hot water preparation by up to 20%. That is good news for the climate, your wallet and our future as a whole.
via Recover heat – Pontos HeatCycle, reusing resources | Hansgrohe International.