While many of us spent the Covid lockdown force-feeding sourdough starters, the in-house Design Group at RTA Studio turned their attention to addressing Aotearoa’s healthy-home shortage by conceiving a warm, dry, sustainable and affordable home that could be assembled in just six weeks for around $335,000 (excluding land cost).
The Living House is a three-bedroom, one-bathroom, 85-square-metre home made from cross-laminated timber. Created in response to the high cost and low supply of quality, healthy homes in Aotearoa, its build cost is roughly $250,000 less than the average government-funded home. The price includes kitchen appliances, flooring, lighting, heat pump and solar panels. The Living House is also carbon zero, making it a realistic and real-time step towards affordable and sustainable homes. RTA Studio’s Richard Naish explains.
Here: Tell us about the form.
Richard Naish: The form is driven by several factors. Firstly, optimisation of the floor-to-wall ratio to achieve an efficient use of material; a pitched roof to allow a four-metre stud height over the living spaces that gives a small footprint a great sense of spaciousness and light; and finally, a formal reference to the Aotearoa New Zealand vernacular architecture that may be a bit shed, a bit wharenui, a bit fale. Overall, like most of our buildings, it’s driven by a layering of functional, cultural and social drivers.
H: It was important to RTA that it be culturally appropriate for Māori, Pasifika and Pākehā. Where do you find that balance?
RN: We wanted to make a house that would be received as appropriate to all New Zealanders – perhaps a “people house” for all people. There is a nod to Māori and Pasifika in the architectural form of the house, but more importantly, in the planning. The sleeping spaces run on either side of the living-and-eating space, with a clear delineation of sleeping on the sides and speaking/socialising in the centre. Natural timber, colours of the landscape and sustainability are all design elements important to Māori and Pasifika values – kaitiakitanga: respecting and protecting the natural environment.
H: Let’s discuss the cladding colours.
RN: There are five choices, all two-toned to highlight elements such as fascias, roofs, gutters and downpipes. The colours are inspired by the landscape, bush, lichen, volcanic scoria, ocean and streams – and the ever-popular Kiwi black.
H: Why cross-laminated timber?
RN: It’s hugely sustainable, negative carbon, homegrown, made in Aotearoa New Zealand and saves raw logs from being exported offshore. And it has a lovely biophilic warmth for the user. It’s primaeval, like staring at a campfire.
H: Any key learnings you’ve taken out of the project?
RN: We’re still learning, as our journey is just beginning. The surprising thing we have learnt so far is how enthusiastically the house has been received, particularly by those who’ve had the chance to visit it.
Living House
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