The Log Cabin 2.34

THE LOG CABIN PROJECT AT OTATARA

The Log Cabin was built in the mid 1980s on Otatara Hills. The site has deep historic and social significance to the Hawke’s Bay region, particularly to the local Maori population to whom the whole Otatara site holds added cultural and spiritual associations. These provided the continuum for a living pattern as the Log Cabin refit project is launched.

The development of the project included refurbishing the Log Cabin to become a good example to showcase sustainable building design and construction practices and as an educational tool for the community that supports and promotes sustainability.

The development of the project includes adopting the following strategies:

Indoor thermal comfort:
To experience feeling comfortable within the space experience situation.

Passive design techniques:
To adopt passive design principles to reduce energy demand. These include attaching a greenhouse with a concrete slab as an aid to its passive heating.

A Net Zero Energy Building:
To improve the building performance, the building is equipped with renewable energy generating systems. The energy supplied to and taken from the electricity grid is balanced.

Impact of materials:
To reduce the energy requirements not just for operation but also for building materials and services. This means the energy embodied in the building’s construction is calculated to have minimum effects on resources.

Materials and recycling:
At the material level, to reduce the impact by considering reuse, using materials with lower impact during refurbishment, and designing for reuse or recycling at the end of the building’s life.

Waste management:
To be able to break down all waste into technical or biological nutrition that could be reused so that no waste is created, thus avoiding the need to find ways to dispose of it.

Water conservation To capture and reuse storm water runoff as an efficient measure to reduce the consumption of potable water. Also to support the recycling and reusing of wastewater after treatment as a low energy source of water supply.