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This home features a large north facing deck with pillars supporting the roof overhead give a definite air of strong design and traditional beauty. A high roof line, raked ceilings and exposed feature trusses all add to the strength and permanence of this rural home. The structure includes steel frames which are set two metres into the ground, adding to the buildings strength.
It has specific design elements unique to this family, such as a scullery for preserves for Bev and a mudroom for Andrew, the dairy farmer.
Bev was inspired on the tour of eco homes in 2001 organised by Hamilton City Council, had a go at building mudbricks. Her research led to understanding the importance of passive solar design.
Recommendation led Bev and husband Andrew to meet with Peter Vossen, and after finding they communicated well with each other, they chose him as their builder. Peter works with Concept Design architects Concept Design.
It took one year to get the design and floor plan sorted, which included the research of house styles, getting quotes, talking to people. The build started in 2008 and the family moved in 2009.
With Peter’s encouragement Bev compromised her original ideas of building a straw bale house to a more conventional build from locally sourced Hinuera Stone .
However, the client-builder relationship has had a strong effect on both. While, Peter introduced the high roof line, Bev was behind the incorporation of second hand and antique furniture as bathrooms vanities.
Bev’s ideas left a big impression on Peter, progressing him along his inevitable green building continuum, which led him to seek out eco design learning opportunities, one of which was the Green Home workshop series in 2009.
During our visit, an interesting exchange took place between client and builder: Bev says if she could do it again, she might make the bedrooms bigger – say 4mX 4m. But that would lead to more waste Peter tells her, as this is not the lengths things are cut to. So she says, 4.2 x 4.2. But do you really need all that room, Peter asks. And so the sustainability conversation continued…
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