Residential

Benchmark

Team: Christina Roberts, Anna Hamilton, Emily Bulkley, Helen Middleton and Sarah Joubert (myself). 

Benchmark is a proposal for a new student accommodation in Wellington, renovating an existing site at 20 Wallace Street. On a low student budget how can daily expenses become cheaper through living choices ? 

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Benchmark challenges the vernacular way of living because it engages students with sustainable living practices to educate them during their first step out of home. The house is completely self sufficient to reduce the cost of living expenses (ideal for students) by using compost to heat water and solar panels to create energy. The property uses 3 separate tanks; one collects rainwater, the second filters grey water for reuse and the third treats solids and black water for the garden.

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The house is completely communal with a living space upstairs and a public kitchen downstairs, where activities are based around a central table that brings everyone together.  

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The house connects directly to the garden that merges into the bottom floor interior space. A recycled glass wall opens the house to the garden a lets light through the northwest. 

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The materials form the original house have been reused in the design to reduce the carbon footprint during the building stage too. However, we also added in additional materials including rammed earth, clay walls and recycled windows.