Finally – The Shed
Jan0
It was almost certainly a mistake to build the house first, although I have been assured that if you do build the shed first: You never build a house.
Either way – the dream is becoming a reality. Toby and the esteemed super-builders Karl Boomsma and Ben have been going hard the last few weeks and the roof is getting close.
The construction is Typical Kiwi Shed. But the intention is to go off track a bit and infill the walls with a lightearth straw/clay mixture. Giving us all year round – cool in summer, warm in winter – comfort for…building crazy things and fixing them later on.
We designed it as it was a bit far from the norm for a kitset, I drew the plans (just squeaking in under the certification radar I think). The local engineers, BMC, detailed it, including the steel truss Toby is hopefully making as I write this, which gives us some clear span and the ability to hoist heavy things up and move them around.
More photos will surely be coming soon.
Mechanisation of the lightearth process
Nov0
I have been doing quite a lot of research into how we can speed up the lightearth/strawclay/lightstraw process for some up coming projects. This video is the best example I can find so far of more advanced production. Exciting stuff.
This video Features Tyler Buck, Tribal Construction and The Jackpine Collaborative.
Light earth wall experiment progress
Oct0
As part of the conciliation of things into satisfying projects the greenhouse project has morphed into a lightearth wall proving ground.
Ever since I read Gernot Minkes book and then encouraged Bis to make his walls I have been convinced that lightearth (or straw/clay or light cob) is a superior infill system to strawbale for buildings in the New Zealand temperate climate. It offers sufficient insulation, thermal mass and a lower footprint.
The posts have been in the ground for over three years but the design has stuck – an off angle roof tuned for solar performance while hunkering down to the south (where the cold comes from). The south wall will be 220mm thick light earth with firewood stacked under the oversize eave – hopefully offering enough mass and insulation to let us grow some citrus inside the building.
The idea is to test the performance of the lightearth wall in a very demanding environment - high humidity and spraying water every day should provide that. I will put some temperature data loggers in the wall and on either side (I’d really like some humidity data loggers too but haven’t found any cheap enough).
More later as it evolves.
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- The roof framing in place. The south side of the roof is recycled galv corrugate - the thick soft stuff (which looks like it came on the first ship)
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- The rear wall has top and bottom ... er .. kinda bond beams. The footing will be a hybrid 'welsh' stone footing and metal flashings. I am fighting my first inclination to use concrete with a desire to experiment and build a structure which could be dismatled as easily as it is built.
Clients
