Earthy base to island life

By Mark Heaslip

In a nation of timber-house dwellers, living in one made of mud seems exotic and unusual. To Waiheke Islanders, it's an attractive alternative.

The island has 30 mud brick buildings, and now, for nearly the first time, a house made of mud brick is for sale.

It's an uncommon event because these houses are usually born of a strong passion by people who spend much time and energy researching the building style and seeing their vision to fruitition. These are houses they will live in forever.

Which was the case when Jackie built her house in Sandy Bay on Waiheke Island more than three years ago. But since then, she's been joined by a partner and a new baby, so it's time to move on.

The house is built from pressed-mud bricks, made in Silverdale, north of Auckland, by a company called Earth Building Systems, and freighted to the island.

The exterior of the house is finished in a mud/cement slurry for further protection against the weather while the interior can be left natural or given a slurry coat also. The natural colour of the brick and the mud/cement mortar is a rich scumbled caramel, made more interesting by the imperfect nature of the bricks, with their chips and scratches.

Although Jackie has chosen the natural mud colour for the slurry finish, coloured oxides can be used to tint it virtually any shade.

"It's much more flexible than you would imagine," she points out.

Macrocarpa window lintels throughout the house are left exposed to add another design dimension, and the timber capping on top of the brick walls is also macrocarpa.

Two design elements are a recurrent theme throughout the house - one is the colour blue and the other is mosaic tile detailing, in the fire hearth, the outdoor patio, the entry floor and the bathroom vanity top.

Cobalt blue aluminium windows provide a striking contrast to the earthy walls.

The two sets of four steps separating the three levels are painted a gloss blue, as is the front door. Blue is used as the accent colour in the bathroom.

Aside from the aesthetic appeal, the mud bricks provide an ambient year-round temperature - cool in summer and warm in winter. A cast-iron firebox gives supplementary heat in winter and the ceiling is insulated with woollen Batts.

The bricks provide a cocoon of peacefulness with their feeling of substance and high sound absorption. They are low maintenance, environmentally friendly and are a permeable, "breathable" material.

The house was designed over three levels, by Jackie and designer Anthony Smit, to follow the gentle sloping contours of the land. There are two entries at the middle level - one into the main body of the house, and the other to an office.

The main entry features rustic Morris & James tiles on the floor, and a spiral staircase which climbs to the second bedroom in the loft space. Ahead, a lovely demolition timber panel door provides internal entry to the office.

To the right is the main bedroom, and the large bathroom and laundry.

The bathroom features golden floor tiles inset with a diamond pattern of dark blue tiles. The same tiles are used on the vanity top, and a blue-painted clawfoot bath sits in one corner.

On the lower level, through a bricked archway from the entrance foyer, the living area is a light and open space, made more expansive with a vaulted ceiling.

The kitchen and dining areas sit to one side with the sitting area occupying the rest. Against one wall, the wood-burning firebox sits on a tiled hearth while the rest of the floor is finished in golden, knotty, heart rimu. It is sealed with a water-based polyurethane. The bedrooms are carpeted.

A corner bay window is a peaceful retreat, and living spills to the outdoors through bifold and french doors. This patio area is defined with a mud brick wall, and coloured concrete floor. Potted plants and a shell collection are charming accessories.

The gardens are filled with toi toi, grasses, ferns, and kanuka trees. Garden beds are edged in stone or driftwood, and more of Jackie's mosaic artistry shows in a garden seat by the office entry.

The house is a 10-minute walk from the beach, and has a view across three neighbouring farms, one with young olive tree groves. It is on a bus route and near a shop, and, of course, on Waiheke Island.

Once the domain of holiday makers and hippies, Waiheke Island has grown steadily in population during recent years but has lost none of its laid-back charm.

Vineyards and olive groves compete for soil space, while cafes and galleries punctuate the main street in Oneroa.

Jackie loves the small community feel but the advantages of having Auckland city at the end of a 35-minute ferry trip.

And she loves mud bricks - so much so that she and her partner are building another mud brick house on another Waiheke Island section.