Chestnut Lodge
The Project
The Chestnut Lodge strives to be a pioneer of sustainable and intelligent design. It is built with relatively low cost materials (except the corten steel roof, although this does have a fairly low lifetime cost), generates its own electricity with solar panels, composts the waste of its users, collects its own water and can heat it for showers, and keeps itself warm through facing north, catching sunlight and thicker than normal insulation. It also has a fireplace for when the sun isn't shining.
The Chestnut Lodge sits on a hill and overlooks a valley of trees. It’s basically a large single room which doubles as a bedroom, dining room, living room, and kitchen, with a separate bathroom and composting toilet.
The sloping corten steel stingray roof, which is also the Lodge's water collecting system, opens the living space up to the valley below with a round ridge beam (the big beam on the ceiling that runs through the room) supporting it. The beam was locally sourced from about 50 meters up the hill and dragged down and into place.
The lodge is warm both physically and arguably aesthetically due to the construction techniques employed. It utilizes various types of wood species for its post and beam structure, its ceiling, its flooring, and its cabinets. Between the post and beam structure the walls are infilled with light earth (straw mixed with some clay) and have a lime render. This was a warm and relatively cost effective method of filling out walls between the structural elements as the straw didn't cost much and the earth was free.
The Chestnut Lodge is currently available as accommodation for visitors to the Tasman region.
LOW COST
The cost of the Chestnut Lodge has been kept down through minimising material and labour costs, and keeping the size of the Lodge small. Much of the labour was done by Richards and a few of his friends. The doors, windows, fireplace, and other elements are secondhand and were obtained for little cost. The other materials, the straw, earth, and timber from site, are inherently cost effective being practically free. The roof is the most expensive part of the building with the corten steel sheets costing about $250 each.
About
Steve Richards is a creator by nature and he tries to make sure that he is always having a good time in the process. He’s taken part in many projects including his own home, which is built out of earth bricks and secondhand wharf piers, his cafe which is a light earth construction, and his world famous boot house (which is basically a large ferrocement shoe that you stay in - inspired by the nursery rhyme of the ‘old woman who lived in a shoe’). Richards and his wife have also restored their six acres of bare farmland that they own, covering it with more than 10,000 trees.
Richards is currently very interested in light earth construction and other natural building techniques.
CONTACT
For more info about the Chestnut Lodge, to book it or the boot house out as accommodation, or to use Steve Richards as a consultant on your project visit jesterhouse.co.nz and send him an email from there.
