Huff and puff: Is straw the future of New Zealand house construction? Today’s alternative? Straw houses! According to the organisers of the International Straw Build Conference at Methven in Canterbury last month, ‘straw-earth buildings’ are the way of the future for New Zealand housing, as supplies of cement and steel are forecasted to deplete over the […]
Building Materials and Methods
Panelised Passive House – looked great
For our last networking meeting of the year Viva visited the Panalised Passive House presently under construction in Parklands. A collaboration between ProjeX4 and Vicus Design Group, the house is constructed of panels from LVL, the panels are fully insulated and lined with both an air tight membrane and water tight membrane as well as ply bracing. […]
Welhaus Wins Award
VIVA! congratulates Christchurch company Welhaus who designed Beach Barn in Brighton which has recently won an award for Novel Application of wood in the 2015 Timber design awards. The Beach Barn is a perfect expression of the context for which it is designed. Referencing the beautiful New Zealand coastal landscape, it incorporates a number of innovative […]
Hat-trick for LILAC – cheap, green, co-living
LILAC is an inspirational affordable co-housing development in Leeds in the UK. LILAC stands for Low-Impact Living Affordable Community and it combines low-impact eco housing with affordability and co-housing, possibly one of the first in the world to encompass all of those aspects at the same time. See more on their website: http://www.lilac.coop/ Paul Chatterton […]
Viva presentation: The potential for wood in the rebuild
Last Monday, at the latest Viva networking meeting, we were thrilled to have Jason Guiver from the wood industry talk with us about the amazing possibilities of timber, both for Viva, and for the Christchurch rebuild generally. Nelson Pine has developed its LVL (laminated veneer lumber) product in collaboration with the engineering department at the University […]