Ecohouse

An award winning entry from the Ecohouse competition, held by the Wellington City Council, New Zealand.

Peter Diprose (Designer)
Matiu Carr (Colour graphics)

Eco -vernacular: Adaptability Flexibility Simplicity

The folk tradition... is the direct and unselfconscious translation into physical from of a culture, its needs and values - as well as the needs, dreams and passions of a people.. The Folk tradition is more closely related to the culture of the majority and life as it is really lived than is the grand design tradition which represents the culture of the elite.

Amos Rapaport, "House Form and Culture"

As building technique has become more sophisticated during the 20th Century, architects have taken up the challenge by generating more complex forms. Highly abstract and complex theories have manifested themselves within overtly labyrinthine geometry. As form has become progressively mannerist, the eternal and timeless quality of architecture has been reduced to disposable and consumeristic whim. This is at odds with the creation of a sustainable architecture. As a response to this problematic, the designer has drawn upon one of the inspirational themes of vernacular architecture: - "it is accepted that vernacular building is additive and adapts to changes more readily than closed form of high style design....vernacular architecture reinforces connection to the community and encourages (for example) the extended family: allowance is made for the economic need to store things, and changes in form with additive and/or internal subdivision.

Although it is clearly stated that the eco-house is not to be considered a universal solution, the competition design requirements imply a solution for the nuclear family of two adults and three children (or 2.2 children ?) The designer notes that the nuclear family is only one of many accepted ways of dwelling - there are for example single parent families, extended families, shared flats, elderly couples, - incorporating people of all ages, at various stages in their lives, demanding different requirements of the architecture. This building is a response to a wider conception of dwelling-living-recreating-working.

This eco-house is designed to meet the goals of adaptability, flexibility and simplicity of design through the life of the building. The chief goal of sustainability within the built environment (aside from minimisation of resource use) is to maintain the economic and cultural relevance of building stock through time.

Maintaining the equilibrium of metabolism - 'As soon as a given culture or way of life has changed its form would become meaningless. Yet we know that many artefacts retain validity when the culture which created them has long since disappeared and that housing and settlement forms are still useable, even though their meaning may have changed greatly'. To reach a sustainable future we must ensure the adaptability of the eco-house.

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Design Description.

perspective view of the front of the house

This design solution makes explicit reference to its symmetrical 19thC. neighbours on its street facade, with the addition of an oversize sun-filled verandah, facilitated by an adjustable sunshade (see video virtual-reality model). Its energy consciousness is clearly expressed with solar panels/water heater above the front door.

The house expresses the new ecological post-industrial world view, in its alignment of walls and rooms to the north, reasserting the cosmological source of life with the (re)orientation to sunrise and sunset, heightening the sensation of diurnal variation of the external environment. Building occupants can follow the path of the sun as the carry out their daily activities.

The plan is based upon the vernacular axioms of internal subdivision - when and if required with sliding wall/doors, and in the New Zealand tradition, addition in the manner of the lean-to has been anticipated. Like the vernacular, space is functionally non-specific, but not amorphous - built form being simple but not bland. The double height Midday/north room allows for a wide variation of potentialities - living, future storage space, work space - craft, retail, profession, child care... or it may offer a larger family a sleeping area with divans or fold down beds (they might also be incorporated into the afternoon rooms) Morning/kitchen - compact farmhouse style with table as work space augmenting bench. Laundry under stairs.

The richness of the essential Kiwi backyard has been critically explored - their dog-kennels, garages, rotary washing lines, barbeques, but most importantly, the affordable addition - the caravan. Statistics NZ states (December 1993) that the number of people residing in caravans is equal to the population of Featherson. One should not assume that this is a just a symptom of the recession. Some find the freedom from mortgage, and the close-knit communal living of the caravan park preferable to the alienation of the suburban house. ('millionaire' Inga Tuigamala chose to live in his mother's garage in preference to other accommodation.) The caravan has been included as indicative of a temporary low impact and low cost addition - part of the eco-houses life process. One eco-house scenario over the life of the building develops from providing shelter/meaning to a single occupant, to a couple, to a nuclear family with baby, then toddlers, school age children (add lean-to?), then teenagers (add caravan), then married children living in caravan until they shift (remove caravan) allowing their parents to retire...but this may only be the beginning...

'Eco' is from the Greek oikos - 'the art of managing a house or household'. Ecology embraces the totality of our relationship with the living environment, whereas economics is concerned with the management of the community's resources. This design importantly recognises these two meanings of Eco -house, that of an environmentally appropriate dwelling, and an economically acceptable dwelling. Efficient resource use - High density, and identification with building and place and nature it to be encouraged. The designer implores the Council to explore a combination of limited self-build (under a contractors guidance which could reduce costs, provide knowledge to the occupant to carry out on-going maintenance and to construct future additions), together with rent to buy as the means of ownership. This level of occupier control over their environment, intellectual and economic, would engender true attachment to site, house and nature.

Area

Heights

1.8m wall and skillion ceiling, upstairs

37 degree roof pitch

If budget allows, (phase 2) conservatory/greenhouse to be constructed

Lean-to and caravan at occupier's discretion (phase 3 and 4)

Materials

Framing(to NZS 3604.) and exterior structure-pergolas etc. -local untreated hardwood Eucalyptus/Macrocarpa

Cladding -corrugated coloursteel, vertical uncut laps, screw fixed recycled untreated ply, screw fixed with negative detail

Internal walls and all ceilings (except north midday-room ceiling) -Gib-board

Roofing -Corrugated coloursteel, screw fixed. Turfroof to lean-to .Corrugated plastic to kitchen and verandah roof (or glass dependant on cost)

Insulation -Wool, well designed, draft-proof curtains

Joinery, sarking and upper flooring, sun louvres -Hardwood, from local renewable source, natural oiled and untreated. Single glazing

Ground floor -Concrete slab with ochre concrete plaster finish cut to flagstones, fired earth tiles, broken china mosaic - by artisan/occupie (uncarpeted for thermal mass) verandah adobe, or recycled bricks

Access way -recycled - bricks, pavers/gobi blocks

Water-heating -Solar

Power supply -Photovoltaics to be added for future lighting

Garden

Maximise food production, minimise lawn (lawn mowing is unsustainable) high yield crops to be taken under advice from local gardeners

Trees -Walnuts, lemons, grapefruit, pears, apples, plums

Greenhouse -Tomatoes, cucumbers, runner beans

Pergolas, posts, (kitchen) -grapes

Vegetable garden -spinach/beets, onions, cabbages, lettuces, pumpkins.

Herb garden

Water tank

Dispensations

Images

the blue room

the downstairs bedroom

the front room

See Martin Hanley and Anna Kemble Welch's winning entry built on site!