Traditional Novel Housing Shift
Professor Susan Krumdieck, Dr. Stacy Rendall, Daniel Bishop
Te Whare Ahuru Sustainable Housing Transition
https://youtu.be/QN1Ye_NLm20. Presentation by Daniel Bishop, One of the Transition Engineers on the project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78endgsunyk Presentation by Professor Krumdieck on the project
Solid log homes, built in an iconically New Zealand style, could be a beautiful, culturally enriching and sustainable replacement for the aging and unhealthy homes in rural areas. Logging and building log homes could represent a potential growth area for sustainable small businesses and year-round jobs in the rural areas. The main barriers are lack of a national log house standard and established NZ traditional log house design. Both barriers could be overcome with a research project. The project puts log home experts, building engineering and Iwi together to design the “classic traditional Maori house” and to demonstrate design elements for durability and thermal performance. The project also develops business planning metrics for forestry and construction. This project will construct a hand-crafted log structure, documenting the materials and labor intputs, and arctheticture elements. The log construction will be modelled for engineering structural and energy behavior. The structure will be tested for four years for maintenance of structural integrity, thermal performance, energy use, infiltration, indoor air quality, humidity and durability.
A key element of the research programme is to test sustainably treated radiata pine as a unique New Zealand wood type available to rural enterprises for adding value to primary production through world-class housing and tourist accommodation. The team will explore potential innovations in deisgn, construction, treatment, processing, harvesting and handling of wood that may present unique opportunities in New Zealand construction. The research team, together with log-home builders are seeking research funding support from the Callaghan Innovation Vision Matauranga program.
Background
The research project will build an attractive and useful structure of solid logs which can be used for research as well as demonstration. The research involves quantifying the labour and materials used in the building process and monitoring the structure thermal, comfort and seismic performance. The research objectives for the test house-building phase are to develop a model for the logistics and generate material quantity, site management and man-hour estimates for the wood sourcing and building phases. The structural engineering research objectives include design, construction, seismic stability, wood durability and settling. The energy and health research objectives are characterization of thermal performance, infiltration, indoor humidity, and energy consumption. The demonstration project aims to provide the experience of being in a log structure and the evidence and explanation of the dynamic integration of solid log materials in regulation of indoor comfort, air quality and energy efficiency.
Research Project Statement
A 20 m2 log structure will be designed by an experienced architect. The specifications will be provided in sufficient detail for consent to build in Christchurch. The Radiata logs will be supplied from a plantation forest in the Canterbury region. Local companies, UC students and volunteers will be involved in the log peeling and shaping. The test structure will be instrumented and tested for 1-3 years. The building can be re-located at a later time.
Preliminary Progress Toward the Project
Logs selected, felled, de-limbed and delivered to Geraldine. The logs were delivered to Natural Log Homes in Geraldine in December 2015. 47 Radiata logs were selected by an experienced log home builder. The logs were stored in a pile in open air.