The ultimate upcycling project
New Zealand has a housing shortage. New Zealand also has loads of old houses no longer fit for purpose.
There’s an opportunity here. Addressing the latter we can help solve the former.
That’s what we are doing with the Forever House. Over the coming months, the Ara Education Charitable Trust, Stuff and our sponsors are turning a derelict house into a warm, dry, ecofriendly and low-cost home.
Like many of our old houses, this one needs to be better insulated to make it warmer and healthier. Some old houses also take up valuable space. A single dwelling like this could be replaced by well-designed townhouses or apartments, creating a better housing for more people, reducing sprawl and giving designers an opportunity to create urban green spaces.
But what to do with the old one? Smashing up a house and dumping it in landfill might only take a day and some big machines but it’s a sad waste of precious metals, as well as windows, doors and, often native, timber framing and flooring.
It also adds to the sector’s huge waste problem. The construction and demolition industry contributes about half of all waste generated in New Zealand, with 20% going to landfill and 80% going to clean fill sites, says research agency BRANZ. By comparison, relocating an old house to a more suitable location, and improving it with insulation and a smart orientation, is a costeffective way to create a healthier home for the people who live in it.
Craig Walker, director of Craig Walker Building Removals in Kumeu, says relocating a house is a more cost-effective option than building. ‘‘Building a cheap house at the moment costs about $4000 a square metre. A relocated house can be supplied, on foundations, for between $1000 to $15,000 m2. Renovation and service connection costs bring it up to around $2000 m2, which still around half the price.’’
‘‘It might look like a dump – broken, cold and mouldy – but still have lots of hidden potential,’’ says Mat Watford, a carpentry tutor with the Ara Education Charitable Trust.
Think of it as the ultimate recycling project.
The Forever House –relocated to the trust’s secure site – will be worked on by senior students, transforming it into a warm, liveable, sustainable home. Along the way, they are taught a huge range of skills by the expert team at the trust.
When students first saw the house, ‘‘their reaction was that it’s a very old house’’, says carpentry tutor William Malakai.
‘‘Some thought it was broken. They wondered how they were going to fix it. We told them to just wait until we finish a bit of it.’’
Others noticed the weatherboards and thought they were cool.
‘‘When we start demolishing parts of it, and take a few walls down, they’ll start to get a picture of it. It’s almost like you are bringing the house back to life again,’’ says Malakai.
Once completed we will auction the house on-site, with all proceeds going back to the trust.
Thanks to our sponsor Resene for their support of this project. Want to be involved? Email our Forever Project Life editor Sarah Heeringa, sarah.heeringa@stuff.co.nz