Registration is through the Earth Building Association New Zealand (EBANZ), or the direct link is here.

Liz Ross

There will be a range of interesting and informative experiences over the course of the internship.  specifically we will be working a cob studio with a reciprocal roof and working towards finish renders and work with native and hard wood timbers. This internship is for those wanting to gain skills and knowledge in natural building specifically as we will be working in a small team of 4-5 working full time hours during the week.

This is not a facilitated workshop, instead this is an experience to live and work on an eco village, create with your hands, share food & knowledge, collaborate with other like minded people and share a space for inspired learning. Living costs are $90 per week and accommodation is the individuals responsibility (tent or similar) and they must commit to the full 3 weeks (11th – 28th April). Your teachers are Rosa Henderson from Sculpted Earth (earth builder – Sculpted Earth), Don Stodart (sculptor and woodsmith) and Leif Stodart (landscaper and stone mason).

Please register your interest by email rosa.scarlette@gmail.com by April 3rd 2016.

The ISBC happens only once every 4 years, and this month New Zealand got a chance to host it for the first time. A full 5 day event with 200 participants (20%  were international, and 80% Kiwi’s), including property developers, building officials, architects, engineers, natural building professionals as well as students and academics.  With international and local speakers presenting every day, plus a workshop space outside and evening entertainment, it was a busy hub! This is great for New Zealand sustainable building, a perfect place to share ideas, network, participate and get hands on experience.

Mainstream product manufacturers also showed up – Rockcote (earth and lime renders) Terra Lana (natural wool insulation) and BBS Timbers (solid timbers) – definitely suppliers to the general construction industry and show that straw and earth building are entering the mainstream.

For me it was important to hear our local speakers, especially Graeme North, Verena Merder ( from solid earth), Sven and Sarah Johnston (from Sol Design) as well as Bruce King (USA), Barbara Jones (UK), Craig White (UK), Rachel Beven (Ireland) and the auzbale team (AUZ) to get diverse experience and perspectives.

The other heigh light was getting to see/touch/experience

*strawbale wall construction and trimming

*earthern plasters, lime plasters (over a variety of substrates) and murals

*laying mud bricks, strength testing for mudbricks and interior brick vaneer walls

*hempcrete

*Making an earthen pizza oven start to finish

*rammed earth

*tadelakt

*soil sampling and clay testing

*light clay straw (light earth)

Here are some links that you may enjoy:

proposal for an international natural building standards by Paul Jaquin

Sol Design, (strawbale in NZ), Solid Earth (earth building in NZ), Sculpted Earth (earth building & workshops in NZ), YIMFY (appropriate technology centre), and EBANZ (Earth Building Association of NZ)

Huge thanks for the Organising team, to EBANZ and to everyone involved in this event, rocked it!

Rosa Henderson

In the article Martin talks about some of the modifications he made to the Earthship Biotecture global model design and why.  These are worth noting as the Adelaide climate (climate zone 6- mild temperate) is much closer to NZ conditions than New Mexico.  Like in Adelaide, in the north of north island we often also suffer from very warm nights and have overcast winters.  Some of design modifications made in the Ironbank earthship are as follows:

• Increased area of north facing roof to accommodate more solar panels since there isn’t as much abundant winter sun as in New Mexico
• Operable skylights in greenhouse roof instead of Mike Reynolds roof vent boxes – for ventilation and also for letting winter sun deep into the rooms to warm the thermal mass
• Using PVC instead of steel cooling tubes. Martin goes into a bit of depth about the best diameter, length and depth of these to optimise heat exchange to suit both the summer and winter needs.
• Backup heating for prolonged overcast winter weather

This project is worth following as the building is wired up to collect thermal data to see how the building performs.  Energy modelling calculated that it would achieve a 6.3 star rating but Martin reckons in reality it will perform more like 9 or 10 stars so that’s what he’s set out to prove. There is very little scientific data on earthship performance in temperate climates so this data will be extremely interesting to see.

The build cost worked out at approx. $2000 per square meter which is comparable to what Mike Reynolds quotes for the global model earthship design.

To find out more about the Ironbank earthship see http://www.earthshipironbank.com.au/

EARTHSHIP TE TIMATANGA OPEN DAY – FEB 13th 2016 10am – 4am. Register below.

Kia ora Koutou. We are having an open day between 10am and 4pm Feb 13th 2016. If you are interested in checking our house out and learn more about it, please register below so we know how many people are interested in attending. Limited numbers, so get in quick!

This is your chance to participate in a 3 week internship on the beautiful Waiheke Island learning a diverse range of skills centred around alternative methods of building and integrated off-grid systems.

There will be a range of interesting and informative experiences over the course of the internship.  specifically we will be working on 2 buildings; a cob studio with a reciprocal roof and working towards finish renders on a mud brick studio. This internship is for those wanting to gain skills and knowledge in natural building specifically as we will be working in a small team of 4-5 working full time hours during the week.

This is not a facilitated workshop, instead this is an experience to live and work on an eco village, create with your hands, share food & knowledge, collaborate with other like minded people and share a space for inspired learning. Living costs are shared and free accommodation is the individuals responsibility (tent or similar) and they must commit to the full 3 weeks (7th – 27th Feb). Your teachers are Rosa Henderson from Sculpted Earth (earth builder – Sculpted Earth), Don Stodart (sculptor and woodsmith) and Leif Stodart (landscaper and stone mason).

Please register your interest by email rosa.scarlette@gmail.com by Jan 10th 2016.

What is an Earthship?

Michael defines Earthships as buildings that incorporate the 6 following principals to creates a comfortable living space, and a house that looks after all your needs. These are:

Building using recycled material

Passive solar heating &cooling

Power generation

Onsite contained sewage

Water catchment

Food production

This creates the perfect oasis in the desert: comfortable temperature in the extreme hot and cold (40 degrees in summer and -30 in winter), enough water to live on (even though rain fall is 8 inches a year), food inside your house (nothing grown outside), tons of power (300+ days of sunshine a year) and all off grid (no utilities offered on the masa!).

Having been to Toas to train and work with Michael Reynolds and his crew, I can testify their their beauty and comfort, and the incredible hard work and genius it took to design, build, redesign and perfect. Being a kiwi, I am keen to bring these ideas home and this year have been working on NZ’s first permitted modern ‘global model’ situated in the Coromandel.

Our climate in Aotearoa varies from top to bottom, from lush northland, to windy grey/blue wellington, to cold clear Otago and everything in between. What is the perfect design in our country for off-grid homes thats can give you a comfortable living space and still provide all your utilities? This is something Im passionate about working on.

I have discovered a few challenges, in transporting these desert homes, back to our beautiful shores. Some are related to the design of the building themselves, and some just to building practice/council requirements/legal details.

*Since we have a much higher rain fall, there are lot of challenges around water proofing; the front face is build with no eves which here all needs flashing, ground water is a huge problem especially behind the berm and hydraulic water under the floor.

*With water recycling, its illegal to put it through your house (even in a contained grey water planter) and also illegal to transport it back to flush your toilet.

*Food production is easy for us outside (mostly!), and we are not in need of the extra humidity inside.

*Sunshine is extremely important to these buildings; for power generation, to heat the huge amount of thermal mass, and to keep the back walls dry (some here experience mold on the back walls). Wellington, I would say, would struggle with the required sunshine hours.

*I am also really interested to see if we can create a cooling system thats work even when the house isn’t totally shut up, as here we generally live both inside and outside. The Earthship way is to create convection currents through opening the skylights at the top of the greenhouse, and drawing ‘earth-cooled’ air through the cooling tubes into the house – a great way as long as the house is closed up.

I’m passionate about Earthships, I fell the principals are excellent, sound and at the foundation of healthy, comfortable and sustainable homes. Looking forward to working with anyone who would like to explore more in this direction.

Rosa Henderson