Tag Archives: new zealand

This idyllic cabin in New Zealands supports a comfy off-grid lifestyle

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Nestled at Mountain Hutt on the South Island of New Zealand is the Kererū Retreat, a tiny quaint cabin surrounded by beautiful alpines. providing avid travelers with a 100% off-grid experience. The home is a fine specimen of minimal design, locally sourced materials, and sustainability. It occupies 17.3 square meters and was built using salvaged timber and galvanized iron.

Designer: New Zealand Studio Well Architecture

The home completely supports an off-grid lifestyle, so it’s great for environment lovers. It has been amped with rooftop solar panels, a rainwater collection tank, a composting toilet, and a wood-burning fireplace. The interiors of the tiny home feature a cozy sleeping quarter with a queen bed, a main living space with a folding table, untreated timber paneling, a kitchen, a hidden bathroom, and a loft zone. The sleeping quarter is accentuated by a panoramic window. The window provides beautiful views of the surrounding landscape and allows visitors to gaze at the sky. When they want some privacy, visitors can cover the window with barn-like timber shutters.

The kitchen has been equipped with everything you would need – such as a gas stove, hot water, mini fridge, kettle, and overhead storage. The bathroom, on the other hand, boasts handcrafted copper plumbing, a composting toilet, a timber cabinet, a steel-framed shower, and flooring slated with timber. The home has also been equipped with a central wood fire, that heats up the space, and is especially useful for cold days and nights. Massive glass sliding doors lead to outdoor timber decking, galvanized iron wood shutters, and piles of firewood. Now, for the best feature of the cabin – it’s been placed on top of a trailer! This allows it to be moved to different locations and sites, according to the requirement. The idyllic cabin is great for vacation getaways, where you wish to get away from the hectic city life and simply unwind. Currently, Airbnb is available for $190 per night. It also won the Canterbury/Westland ADNZ Resene Architectural Design Awards for best Residential Compact New Home up to 150 sq m (1615 sq ft). Book the Kererū Retreat for your next holiday with your loved ones.

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This modern tiny home is all about harvesting & using water sustainably!

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Sustainable architecture is how we can make a large impact on the collective carbon footprint as residents and also for the construction industry which is the leader for carbon emissions. The more sustainable structures we have, the faster we can take bigger chunks of carbon away rather than just using less plastic for one essential item. Wai House is a perfect example of that, ‘wai’ means water in Maori and that is the core of this modern home‘s design.

The modern architectural concept is designed to be built in New Zealand and focuses on collecting water and using it sustainably. The house itself is constructed with sustainable materials, cedarwood is used for the exterior cladding and the interiors use concrete with recycled plastic instead of sand. It has an almost Japandi-inspired aesthetic which is elegant enough on its own without taking away from the environment it is in.

It is designed to collect and store rainwater for use with systems in place that funnel it to the kitchen, bathroom, and outdoor greenery. Since it is just a concept, there is potential for it to become even more sustainable by adding solar panels for energy efficiency. New Zealand also has a rich cultural heritage and that can be incorporated into the interiors through the fabrics used or the artwork to foster a stronger bond with the local community and give back to them.

Wai House is perfect for a young couple who is willing to leave the traditional living standards and move to a smaller, yet spacious tiny home. With a smaller floor area compared to a traditional townhouse, the carbon footprint is also smaller and more so with the eco-conscious construction materials used. Wai House is also one of the noteworthy entries for the Green Product Award 2021 and we can see why – it perfectly blends minimalism, luxury, and sustainability into one compact home!

Designer: Marbella Design Academy

The post This modern tiny home is all about harvesting & using water sustainably! first appeared on Yanko Design.

Solid Gold Death Star Coins: That’s No Beskar

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Released by the New Zealand Mint, these 1-ounce Death Star Coins are engraved with an image of the Empire’s moon-sized superweapon on one side and Queen Elizabeth on the opposite. A nice combo. Personally, I would have gone with an Ewok on the other side to commemorate the Battle of Endor, but I wasn’t asked. I’m never asked.

Limited to an edition of 500, the 0.9999% gold coins are available for $2,900 apiece. And, with the current price of gold hovering around $1,900, you’re paying roughly a thousand extra bucks for that Death Star engraving. Should you just buy an ounce of gold, mint a coin shape, and engrave your own? I’m not here to tell you what to do, but you absolutely should, and make me one while you’re at it.

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If I had the money, I would buy all five hundred of them, then slowly release them on eBay for an even steeper profit. Or end up selling them for less than I paid for them – it’s happened before. I’m not really a great investor. Take, for instance, the time I invested in a complete set of original mint-in-package Kenner Star Wars action figures from 1977, then tore them all out of their packaging and played with them in the bathtub. I… have regrets.

[via DudeIWantThat]

This angular passive house is built on a tilt in New Zealand and leans into the wind!

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This modern house in New Zealand is a passive structure that won an award from the New Zealand Institute of Architects for its sense of fun and how the design carries through from outside to inside – it makes you feel like you are on a holiday but in a home that you can stay in all year round. The Long Grass House harmoniously blends affordability, sustainability, and liveability!

The use of inexpensive plywood in the interior and steel cladding on the exterior gives it an evergreen yet modern aesthetic with contrast. The interiors are engaging, with plenty of space, natural light, and material warmth. The design approach has been focused on including what is really needed in order to produce what is sufficient; positively reducing waste of both space and construction materials.

It showcases a simple plan for a medium-sized house with a spacious te garage and an interesting layout of the bathroom, laundry, and entrance. The garage and main structure complement each other and almost look like two perfectly angled Lego blocks! The jury that presented the award noted how the Long Grass House is a great example 0f how to use inexpensive materials and get real value out of them.

The angled ends are supposed to appear to be leaning into the prevailing wind, but it’s really a clever energy-saving trick to create overhangs that shade the windows from the northern sun. The architect notes: “The form of the building is compact giving a low form factor, and with its compactness comes low energy demand. Passive House Energy calculations were used to drive design decisions – using current climate data and predicted future climate data.”

A panoramic skylight runs near the length of the building and connects to a vertical window and you can see it from the inside in the kitchen. This light is minimal but eye-catching detail in the house which is designed with thrifty detailing, colourful trimmings, and simple geometric shapes. The wooden stairway leads to a loft above the bathroom and laundry.

“Every material and surface here is durable and will take some hard knocks—something that was central to all material decisions, including cladding. We wanted to ensure that every product we specified would stand the test of time in this harsh environment and be suitable for the family to live in with its changing needs for years to come,” said the team.

The house gets a lot of attention for the slopes that lean into the wind, but the real appreciation should go towards the simplicity and economy of the materials used throughout. Steel siding is one of the most durable and affordable materials for the exterior. While plywood is perfect for long-lasting interiors without increasing costs and maintaining a timeless look. The compact structure helps ensure low energy demand and Passive House Energy calculations were used to drive many design decisions using current and future (predicted) climate data. Long Grass House is perfect for a modern, eco-conscious family looking for a forever home on a budget!

Designer: Rafe Maclean

This cabin in the mountain foothills is inspired by the flight patterns and nesting habits of skylarks!

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Skylark Cabin, a 50sqm residence located in the foothills of New Zealand’s Ben Ohau mountain range was inspired by the flight and song of skylarks.

We have birds to thank for our best designs. Their songs and nests have tugged our heartstrings for centuries. Often, birds’ natural instinct leads to the most formidable and elaborate nests. In Twizel, New Zealand, skylarks have a particular pull over the town’s residents. Just below Twizel’s Ben Ohau mountain range, skylarks soar and hover above their on-ground nests in the open skies with song and carefully orchestrated flights. In an ode to the skylark’s “distinctive aerial display” New Zealand architect Barry Connor designed the Skylark Cabin.

Following their client’s brief for a simple retreat made from honest materials, it’s no surprise that the skylark’s singing and nesting habits inspired Connor. As birds construct their nests using local materials from as near or far as their wings will take them, Connor used the surrounding landscape to decide Skylark Cabin’s makeup and design.

Similar to the skylark’s grassy, on-ground nest, Skylark Cabin, cloaked in rough sawn larch timber rain-screen, pokes a gently pitched, yet angular roof just above the sloping grasslands. Acclimating to the prairie’s harsh, windy conditions and radical temperature shifts, Skylark Cabin’s rain-screen cladding was chosen for its year-round durability.

Amidst the dark stained exterior, bright burnt orange window frames and beams lead the gaze towards the home’s front facade where they’re, “poised to accommodate the purposefully framed views of the mountains and the stars that throughout the day or night provide interest, perspective, and scale,” as Connor puts it.

Inside, the different windows are also aptly positioned to provide the best views of the skylarks’ skies. Connor built in a skylight just above the main bedroom, bringing views of the protected Mackenzie Aoraki Dark Sky Reserve as well as skylark-ridden daytime skies before the night show.

The skylark’s grassy, on-ground nest is characteristic of Twizel’s prairie lands for its lack of trees. Evoking the feeling of being completely nestled and immersed in Twizel’s grasslands, Connor paneled Skylark Cabin’s interior in light Beech plywood, “[reflecting] the warm cream tones of the exterior and [blurring] the threshold with the tussock grassland [to capture] the feeling of being nestled right in the landscape.” Connor reinforces this primitive inspiration with a sense of protection through black-edged plywood ribbing details that serve to cradle the home’s wild beginnings and beech-soaked interior.

Designer: Barry Connor

Google expands Play Pass to nine countries beyond the US

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Almost a year after Google introduced Play Pass on Android, it’s expanding the game and app subscription service outside of the US. It’ll be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom th...

Facebook, Google and others adopt guidelines intended to fight child abuse

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Today, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security -- along with government counterparts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom -- published guidelines to help the tech industry fight online child exploitation. The princip...

Autonomous flying taxi Cora set for passenger trials in New Zealand

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Companies have been saying for years that flying taxis are on the agenda. Now it looks like they're finally set to take flight. Wisk -- a joint venture between Boeing and Kitty Hawk -- has signed a memorandum of understanding with the New Zealand gov...