Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Building with nature

Affordable low cost housing - now that is an achievement worth going for.

"Increasing the demand for homes made from a repackaging of papatuanuku, the earth, is what a low-cost housing project in the Far North hopes to achieve.

Auckland University's Engineering School has been leading research into the performance of uku housing - a building method which involves mixing earth, flax and cement to use as a base material.

The research aims to "equip rural Maori communities with the knowledge to use their own earth and labour to build desirable housing"."


Using natural materials to build (as much as you can) is good for the environment, good for the community and good for the people.

2 comments:

feddabonn said...

any movement towards low cost housing using local material has to be a good thing! very exciting news. i can just imagine laurie baker smiling in his grave!

Marty Mars said...

I agree feddabonn - I'd like to see hempcrete and harakeke used more often.