Thunder Grey, MAXX®, Te Timatanga
The concept became grounded in the idea of ‘biotecture’. This is the coming together of nature and design. As well as elements of anti-consumerism and a touch of renegade spirit.
In the New Zealand context, there could be no better home for Te Timatanga (The Beginning) than Tairua, on the Coromandel Peninsula. A place where elements of the alternative lifestyle and planet consciousness are alive and well.
Te Timatanga is a vintage Earthship. It's made from recycled materials notably mud bricks, 7,000 glass bottles and 1,300 recycled tires rammed full of earth. The building collects and recycles its own water, contains its own sewage, grows much of the family’s food and, through a combination of active solar heating and thermal mass construction, also generates its own energy.
The structure itself is a low-slung, single-storied home with four bedrooms, a bathroom, and an open-plan kitchen and living room. It is at one with the earth with the south wall of the home embedded into the hillside behind it. There are giant windows on north-facing wall, which allow the sun’s light and warmth to flood in.
The choice of roofing had to complement the earth safe philosophy that inspired the home's design. The natural choice proved to be COLORSTEEL® in Thunder Grey. This colour blends in with the Coromandel mountains as well as the dusky Manuka bush that surrounds the Earthship.
