Flood Resilient Housing for Aotearoa New Zealand

To design a climate resilient Truss House on a floating foundation using the principles of amphibious architecture. Once the pilot design and process are complete, it will be made available on an open-source basis for use by other design professionals across Aotearoa. Combining a rapid build climate resilient Truss House ™  system with a flood proof foundation, enabling re-build for flood victims across the country.  

 

The first floating Truss House™  built for the pilot will be used for a young Hawke’s Bay family who lost their house on floodplain land. It was a recent purchase by the family in a rural area and resulted in the loss of their cultivated homestead as well as their house. Truss House are working with a Napier based architect, engineer and building firm are ready to start the design process, with a Napier based truss plant producing the Truss House system. 

 

Funds raised: 

These will pay the engineering and design team for their work, as the costs of the prototype. Amphibious foundations are new for New Zealand, so there is no guarantee of obtaining Government approval. However, it is expected that the consent process will be fast tracked by the government as part of the post flood rebuild. 

 

Result: Re-housing of a young family who lost their house to cyclone floods and a new open-source flood resilient house design for the post cyclone re-build in Aotearoa. 

 

EHF Fellows involved:
 

Kim Aitken (C7), the original creator of the Truss House™  technology, who developed and patented the process in 2018. In Canada Kim’s company built more than a dozen homes before moving to Aotearoa as an Edmund Hillary Fellow. Truss House™  offers a climate resilient housing system produced across New Zealand. 
 

Ian Harvey (C8) is the founder of Collective Intelligence, a human connected ecosystem. Harv has curated a Hatcher team of experts from the CQ ecosystem for 6 months to support Kim and the wider team in this project delivery. 

Harv is connected to the Hawkes Bay family who will be rehoused through this pilot project. 

 

The amphibious foundation work was originally pioneered by Dr Elizabeth English and will be re-created for Aotearoa New Zealand.