RTA Studio has designed a green house that steps as lightly on the land as possible. The unbuilt house, intended for a site in a highly controlled outstanding natural landscape area, has been designed to be carbon neutral to build, run and demolish.

The client, John May of the Longview Environmental Trust, purchased a large tract of spectacular land near Wanaka to protect it from the possibility of aggressive development. Instead of opposing potential purchase through the Environment Court (as he had done in the past with other developments), May decided to buy the land and develop it to what he considered to be an environmentally appropriate level. This included reducing the number of subdivided sections to seven, the minimum required to make the purchase viable.

May wanted to go further than this and ensure any houses built on the site be sustainable. Initially he incorporated some general clauses about design, but felt that these were not sufficiently robust. Finding the available sustainability rating tools lacking, May decided to build his own. His rating tool comprises ‘the three C’s’, which are zero carbon operational output zero carbon embodied in the total materials, and a zero cycle – or 100% recyclable materials.

He met with Richard Naish from RTA Studio and formalised the objectives of the design. The house had to score well against the three C’s and also needed to serve as a good-looking example for would-be purchasers of the sites.

The design brief was for a permanent residence for a family of four with two living areas, two guest bedrooms, a gym, and garaging for two cars. A one-car garage might have been more in keeping with the green theme of the brief, but the house is certainly doing its bit for the environment – so the fictional family of four can be forgiven a small lapse.

The house looks like an international spy’s lair, a discreet bunker. It sits very low on the site and makes use of a material palette of local stone, timber and rammed earth that suits the setting so well it gives the house a camouflaged feel. And should this spy’s family of four need to make themselves scarce, the house creates zero waste when deconstructed.