- A four-bedroom Coromandel Earthship featured on Grand Designs New Zealand has been listed for sale.
- Built in 2015 from 1300 tyres and 7000 bottles, it uses passive heating and greywater.
- Owners Gus Anning and Sarah Rowe are selling before moving to the Bay of Islands.
A home built from 1300 recycled tyres and 7000 glass bottles that featured in the first season of Grand Designs New Zealand has been listed for sale in the Coromandel.
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The four-bedroom Hikuai property, known as "Earthship Te Timatanga", was constructed with recycled materials in 2015 and is one of the country's most striking eco homes.
Owner Gus Anning was inspired after watching the 2007 documentary Garbage Warrior. The film followed maverick United States-based architect Michael Reynolds as he built self-sufficient "Earthship" homes out of recycled materials, including sand-packed tyres and beer cans. The homes are designed to generate their own power, harvest water, and recycle waste.
Anning and his wife Sarah Rowe were determined to bring the same verve to their own home; their eco dreams became a reality when Rowe's parents suggested they build the "Earthship" on family land where Rowe had previously kept her horse.
"It happened to face north, and it was a beautiful, beautiful section," Anning said. "Literally, it's an absolutely gorgeous valley with a peak staring at you right in the face, with a beautiful river. It ticked all the boxes for that dream section, really."
The couple used local architects to design the home and six Earthship "gurus" from overseas to help with the build. Photo / Supplied
The home was built with 1300 recycled tyres and 7000 glass bottles as well as copious quantities of earth and other repurposed materials. Photo / Supplied
Rowe and Anning engaged Graeme North of Young and Richards to help design the home, which was built in less than a year.
They were helped by friends and family as well as experienced "Earthship" gurus from overseas. Their children, aged 14, 12, and 4, at the time, also lent a hand.
"We had people camping next to the river and learning how to build the house," Anning said.
"Along the way we’ve been blessed to meet so many beautiful people who have helped us shape our dream into a reality."
Rowe and Anning used an owner-builder exemption to get building consent from the Thames-Coromandel District Council. That allowed them to carry out restricted building work, which would usually require a Licensed Building Practitioner.
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The Earthship concept was designed for the super dry New Mexico desert, which meant the couple needed to modify some of the concepts as they went, Anning said. "Because we live in New Zealand, it's not such a harsh climate."
He added: "We opened it out [with] a free-flowing, indoor-outdoor flow. Every room faced north for the sun [and] every room gets the same amount of sun. There's no back corner."
Both heating and cooling are passive. "The house sits about 20 degrees [Celsius] all year round. As it's facing north, you've got 70-degree-angle glazing to accept more of that winter sun [and a] big thermal mass at the back in the tyres, which heat up.
"Then during the summer, you could open up the Velux windows at the top to let that heat out. It creates suction through our vent tube."
The grey water is designed to run into a planter area in the atrium, watering the plants.
Rowe and Anning were on site every day during the build, keeping the project on track. "We were there trying to keep ahead of everybody else, ordering everything and smashing tyres, mixing mud," Anning said.
Rowe added: "We had a pre-meeting every morning, some stretches, team building, and then a meeting about how the day was going to go. [We were] also hosting everybody and catering."
The home in rural Hikuai has been a holistic haven to the couple and their three children but is now looking for a new Kaitiaki. Photo / Supplied
The couple said living in the home had been special. "It's insanely holistic," Rowe said. "It breathes and regulates the humidity and the temperature."
The learning curve was huge, she added. "Learning about harnessing solar energy, rainwater collection and the whole beauty of the surroundings. It's been a vision that came to life and a really, really special place to call home."
The family are selling up to move to the Bay of Islands, where Anning, a professional skipper and expedition guide, hails from.
"It's just another chapter," Anning said. "It's awesome to mix it up a bit. It's quite a short time that we're here. We only live once, really. Bring it on."
Rowe said the family was looking forward to seeing new Kaitiaki in their Coromandel Earthship. "We're just willing to see it begin a new chapter with owners that will love it as much. It feels like it has profound magic in its walls. And I really believe that it's calling its new owners right now. We believe that we'll find people that appreciate the vision we had behind it and just want to continue."
189 Puketui Valley Road is being sold by Heather Sturgeon and Sandie Faiers of Bayleys. In their listing, the agents describe the four-bedroom, two-bathroom 268sqm house on 1.08ha of land as a pioneering home that reimagines what modern living can be.
Sturgeon had already watched the Grand Designs NZ programme about the home and met Rowe and Anning before taking on the listing. They often crossed paths at a local swimming hole near the property.
She was blown away when she first set foot inside the house. "It was nothing I've ever seen before. I'd watched the episode. That gave a lot of context to how much work and man-hours went into building this property. But it was amazing to see it in person, and just the scale of it was exceptional.
"I love the growing corridor. I think it's stunning with the skylights above it. That's something special that you don't see in many properties."
The bottles are another of her favourite features. And not all were created equal. Some, such as the blue Bombay Sapphire bottles, were a real score. "When you actually go to the property, and you look around, and you see the bottles, you can spot those really cool bottles that you can imagine they picked out and thought, 'This will be beautiful'. You can see the Bombay Sapphire in the bottle wall."
Sturgeon told OneRoof that she had received multiple emails and calls since the listing went live, including from expat Kiwis. She planned to market the property in parts of the United States where the Earthship concept was well known.
189 Puketui Valley Road is the third property from the first season of Grand Designs New Zealand to hit the market. Scott Lawrie's "Stealth Bomber" home in Pakiri sold in 2019 for $1.6m while Nic Ballara's "45° House" in Wellington sold for $1.4m in January after almost a year on the market.
