esr.org.nz

Date and Time:     Thursday 17 September 2009,  7-30pm

Venue:                    Room 3.407 School of Engineering,
University of Auckland,

Speakers: SHac09 Team, Dr Kepa Morgan, Jing Siong, John Cheah, Jenny Chu, Paul Jarvie, Jason Kururangi, Yuyi Shi, Deborah Teh

John is a PhD student with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Top Doctoral Scholar, and Team Leader for SHaC’09.

Kepa is a senior lecturer in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Managing Director of  Mahi Maioro Professionals. Kepa is a Chartered Professional Engineer and has been recognised for his consulting expertise working at the interface between Maori and Engineering, specifically in the area of M?ori land development. His work in this area included the creation of a Papakainga development guide in 1993, for which he won the inaugural Housing Industry Association Award fro Special Contribution to Housing and has more recently involved researching Uku; Fibre Reinforced Earth Composite which has resulted in three buildings and educational resources in Te Reo Rangatira available via the web.

Abstract :
In the year 2008, the first Uku house was built using local labour from the rural community, blessed, and occupied by a M?ori family. Uku is a low-cost flax fibre-reinforced stabilized rammed earth wall housing approach that has been designed for the rural M?ori communities of New Zealand. This presentation follows the development of Uku from a low-cost, natural material concept, into a 90 m2 two bedroom house located on Haumingi 10a2b papakainga, Rotoiti.

Uku research began in 1996 to develop an accessible, affordable and appropriate housing system for rural M?ori. A M?ori Community Reference Group (MCRG), consisting of potential end users, was formed and used throughout the research to ensure the Uku housing concept considered the physical and financial resources available in rural M?ori communities, addressed the cultural housing needs of M?ori, and would be socially acceptable and desirable. The Uku housing system has been developed to utilize locally available material resources, be able to employ local community based labour, and to equip rural M?ori communities with the resources and knowledge to build their own houses independently. Earthen construction was chosen to maximise use of local resources (materials and labour) and take advantage of the inherent advantages using earth as a housing material (e.g. long-term permanence of earthen structures, high thermal mass for indoor temperature regulation, and natural resistance to fire and insects).

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Contact    John La Roche Ph 09 528 9759 johnlarioche@xtra.co.nz