Website changes

You might have noticed that our website is changing to reflect our progress, so take a look around and come back often to watch as we update the information on the milestones towards the production of the BackYarder.
Among new material arriving in the BackYarder progress section is a video of the latest beam cutting. Other things are to come. 

The first cut is the deepest...

We have now done our first cutting of life-size house pieces for over two years, and the first full-size cutting we’ve ever done in Christchurch. The previous prototype was all cut in Wellington for an exhibition called Makertorium and then shipped down to Christchurch. What we’ve cut is just enough to create a test segment of our main beam but nonetheless an important part of the progress required towards the BackYarder. With the learnings from that exercise we move on to cutting and testing a large beam so we know that what we’re designing is safe to live in.

WikiHouse now growing locally

In the last few months we’ve been busily developing the design of our first habitable WikiHouse. Many will have seen the prototype frame produced some time ago which was the precursor to the model we are soon to show the world.

We are now a team of some 20 volunteers collaborating feverishly on a design called the BackYarder which we plan to unveil later in the year. The house itself will be something quite radical compared to the market norms and we expect huge interest in the finished product.

Plying our trade at FESTA

When you're pushing the boundaries of innovation with a project its always a leap of faith that things will work in reality as you had theorised. When it happens that the actual results exceed your expectations it can be truly validating.

During the year we had been discussing our desire to be part of the Festival of Transitional Architecture and what form that involvement would take. In the end due to resource constraints we opted for a simple one day assembly/ dis-assembly event of our existing 'proof of concept' prototype frame that we had fabricated in Wellington for the Makertorium event earlier in the year.

The whole WikiHouse packs down into a standard van in around an hour

After dismantling the WikiHouse on Friday in just over an hour we stored it in a van for the weekend ready for its Labour Day public debut in Christchurch. We had recruited the help of twelve volunteers with no building experience who had signed up through our meetup group and armed them with rubber mallets kindly supplied by a local hardware store

With a 9am start and after an quick briefing the volunteers were arranged into 3 groups of four each tasked with the assembly of a portal frame. With minimal guidance and the reference of a scale model it was great to see collaboration & teamwork come to the fore as the groups set about assembling their giant 3d puzzle.

In less than 2 hours the WikiHouse had been assembled with everyone stunned by the speed at which they had been able to create a full size building frame. There was a feeling amongst the group that "if we can do this imagine what else we are capable of".

Twelve ordinary people with no formal skills or training assemble the WikiHouse in under 2 hours.

Maybe we could rebuild a city from a space the size of a two car garage!

Thanks to FESTA, PreFabNZ, CPIT, Delta Community Trust & Mitre10 Hornby for their support in making this event happen so successfully.