Paul Marcroft's Page

Its a bit late for me to say much.
Basically Jo & I were approached to solve the problem of housing on Maori shared land. As they regard land as whenua, not property it is unethical for them to use it as collateral. The banks will not lend without collateral so finance for development on Maori land is hard to come by.
We knew from the first Ecoshow that interest free finance was possible, and from a classical permaculture point of view that use of on-site and/or local materials, recycled materials, contributed labour, passive solar design, onsite food production, good wind shelter, autonomous energy systems and on-site or local livelihoods all converge to generate low cost high quality housing that costs little to run and maintain and which lifts standard of living of the occupants, self esteem and skill levels.
This approach was accepted so we are well on the way with the project. We created the Genuine Wealth System based on the JAK concurrent savings and loan payments system but grounded the system within personal agreements, rather than the institution of a bank. We are using clay and pumice infil. The house is designed by Sean Harris (Masters in Sustainable Architecture, Uni of Auck) and has had full consent from Taupo District Council (the districts first earth house). Scion will be testing the wall panels for bracing strength in the hope that we can increase the stud spacing in future. We will also be testing the R value of the walls (200 mm thick).
The walls will be started on when the weather improves.
We expect that the cost of this building (120m2 floor area) will come in under $40,000 and will be paid for by its owner within about 4 years.
We will be having a guy from Cal Earth build an emergency shelter using earth bag technology at the Ecoshow. This technology has a code now which complies with California's earthquake and building standards. Cost of building is about $100 per square metre. Come along and check it out for yourself. Bryan