Resource Consent Granted – Building Consent next to come!
This is an update as to where the Waiheke ES project is currently at along with a proposal to which we invite your thoughts and comment.
The first hurdle of the consent process has been overcome with the granting of resource consent for the Waiheke Earthship by Auckland Council. The resource consent covers such things as the size, bulk and look of the building, earthworks, impacts on native trees, and wastewater treatment and disposal, and was accepted as the building is low impact design and rain water collection and on-site sewage treatment as is the norm on Waiheke.
The Building Consent application process is yet to come and we are about 75% of the way to having a set of plans to present to Auckland Council. No construction start date has been rescheduled as yet.
To date the Earthship design process overall has been laborious, slow and costly as a result from the dynamics and complications of trying to work with Earthship Biotecture (EB) in the USA and attempting to bring Mike Reynolds design into a format which meets NZ engineering and consent requirements. To date it just not turned out to be a workable pathway to create a cost-effective outcome so with the agreement of EB, we are now adopting a different approach which we think will be easier to manage and be more cost effective. Having got the plans and engineering to an advanced concept design stage we will now take charge of the design and compliance process from EB and finish off the detailed design of the Waiheke Earthship with our local NZ team under the guidance of architect Graeme North and present the finished product to EB for review (rather than have Mike Reynolds of EB lead the project as head architect). We are in conversation with the Coromandel Earthship folks (Gus & Sarah) who are embarking on designing an earthship near Tariua, Coromandel and we’re both looking at working with the same team of design professionals.
We have had conversations with many individuals and groups nationwide who are keen to see a consentable NZ approved version of the generic EB Global Model Earthship accessible to their communities. We envision this could be made possible in conjunction with the earthship design process that we are going through. In addition to our own custom earthship design we are looking at providing a set of earthship system NZ generic “specifications” which could be applied to any site in NZ including an NZ approved tyre code, wastewater systems design, water proofing, ventilation and other key components of earthship design. It is important to note that these would not be a a set of building plans which could be presented for rubber stamping by councils as NZ law requires that site specific drawings are created for every building consent. It would however save anyone embarking on their own earthship design considerable cost and time as all the key NZ code compliant details could just be lifted and applied. By pooling resources with any others of you out there that are looking to build earthships in the future, or just want to support the movement, we have an opportunity to really empower the expansion of earthship building in NZ.
In order to gauge and confirm interest and also have a transparent mechanism to manage the process, we are looking into a crowd funding method called Kickstarter to raise the money to provide the generic set of code compliant NZ earthship specifications. As we have already resolved many of the core aspects of the compliance requirements with our considerable investment to date with Earthship Biotecture and NZ architect and engineers, we envision that it will be quite cost effective for others to chip in to achieve a full set of generic earthship specifications for themselves.
At the end of the day, whether or not there is sufficient interest, we will carry on and complete our site specific plans for the Waiheke ES project (as we imagine will others) however we feel it is much more efficient and better for all stakeholders to work collaboratively to achieve an outcome with much greater and wider benefits for the NZ Earthship community.
So what do you say – does the idea sound attractive and would you contribute to making it work? If not why and how could this idea be improved?
Thanks and we look forward to your comments.
Liz and Dana
That is a great idea guys I am keen to help with funds towards this process it will be an installment type thing for me. Maybe we could also do some workshops to raise money? Will put my thinking cap on. Good on you for leading the way and doing the donkey work. Peace
Absolutely! I tautoko yr mahi. . Thanks for pathing the way. . Please get in touch if you are looking for a venue in the cbd to hold seminars etc. .. We are a charitable trust called Te Karanga, home to Kfm radio station, Tea culture tea shop, Art gallery, Ta Moko studio and other creative spaces. Based at 208 krd. I would say we would probably share a similar Kaupapa. . Good luck with the Babylon battle. . Nga mihi nui!
Great idea and you have my backing! This would increase the feasibility for building Earthship communities, which is what I am mostly interested in. Pooling resources for the systems and common areas would cut down on costs and would also make it more available for those that can’t afford to build one themselves and/or are looking to be a part of a sustainable community.
My partner and I are going to Graeme North’s workship in natural building at Earthsong at end of month. Look very much forward to it.
Thanks so much for all your work and inspiration!
Kick starter is a great idea
Would be happy to support that if it meant generic plans would become available
Having generic plans available to help make it feasible, for others, is a great idea. I will also contribute to this fund. Thank you for your leadership.
Kickstarter for generic plans sounds like an awesome idea! I would love to contribute what I can to this fund as I would like to build an earthship myself in the next 5-10 years. It would be EXTREMELY helpful if there were plans already available for me to work from. 🙂
Great idea, as many people would benefit from all of your research and work. Furthermore it would encourage more people to use the EB system if it is simplified. I would be happy to contribute to help this process. Thanks for all your hard work.
Most definitely will contribute, normally with kickstarter there are levels of what you get depending on how much you contribute, do you have any idea on how this is likely to look/
Hi
First of all thank you for starting this process its definitely needed in NZ. Ill be happy to help contribute on kick starter. Also I am a trained carpenter with earth building experience and have built a small (10 m2) rammed earth tyre house before. I’m currently studying architecture and am taking a year out before my masters begins to do some eco building work. I don’t know whether you have a building team together yet or not but I would be interested in doing some building work on your project. If your interested email me at timmeextreme@gmail.com
Thanks for all your efforts and your time.
Tim
I know there is a huge amount of interest in NZ for people wanting to build using Earthship principles but as you mentioned the engineering reports and technical drawings required by our building codes are more than enough to put off anyone who doesn’t have a huge budget. I speak for myself and a group of a couple of hundred people who are keen to be able to build in this way in the future and would all be happy to chip in to crowd fund an open set of drawings/reports!
Please let us know when you are thinking of putting this on kickstarted. It would be a great way for you to get something back for all your hard work and at the same way paving the road for others to follow in your footsteps.
typo in last post. time not way.
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Hi I came over and saw the site some months ago. Have you sold the Earthship site next to where you have consent?
Best wishes…………Patrick
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potential, for the monetizing method, just search in google – K2 advices how to monetize a website
First came across an earthship in Spain 5 months ago, that changed everything. The way we build in NZ is wasteful and creates expensive to run dwellings. I am a qualified builder interested in this type of construction and was wondering if you would be using skilled volunteers on your build? Do you have an email I can contact you through?