Rammed earth on Kangaroo Island, #148 - The Owner Builder

Roni and Cathy moved to KangarooIsland in 1982, making the trip over fromWA in a converted bus. They bought 32hectares of land in an area consideredto be ‘poor’ by farmers, and set aboutbuilding themselves a mud brick home.They both believe that the best way to usetheir lifetime sensibly is to cut cornersas far as possible by not being employedby others – so they started off growingvarious crops, most recently garlic andhoney. Cathy, a registered nurse andmidwife, also works off-farm to providesome extra income. At first she used totravel up to Adelaide for short periods ofwork, followed by longer sessions back athome; now she works at the KangarooIsland Health Service in Kingscote as wellas on the farm.They never had any intention ofbuilding another home. Roni says he isnot a builder – although he is a welderby trade – but rather a jack-of-all-trades.He sees himself first as a father bynature, then as a farmer, and finally as afrustrated artist by soul.Being confirmed ‘greenies,’ theybecame involved in the local actionagainst Vivonne Bay being turned into abeachfront McMansion paradise. Localaction convinced the state governmentto purchase all the waterfront blocks ofthe subdivision, thereby retaining thewild and natural state of the beach –recently voted the title of ‘Best Beachin Australia.’ Having a little sparecash, they decided to invest in threeconnected blocks of the subdivision –this was back when land in Vivonne Baywas still cheap; not so today.They decided to build a home on themiddle block, using Roni’s time andexpertise gained from the first build,with the intention of having his parentsvisit for a few months each year fromIsrael. Unfortunately they didn’t likeit, finding life on KI too quiet! So planB was implemented, and that was torent the house out to holidaymakers.A photographic record of the build ison display for visitors, and they hopethat the stay may convince some peoplethat owner building in an <strong>earth</strong> friendlymanner is possible.Natural buildFollowing the theme of their home,they wanted the house to be naturallyand ecologically just, using localbuilding materials, being well insulatedand comfortable to live in. Unusual itsure is, but it is nevertheless a ‘dinkum’house, fully council approved. Ronidid all the plans himself, and had themchecked over by a engineer to okay thefootings and structure.Roni’s mother is in a wheelchair,so access throughout the house andoutside was designed with this in mind;counter heights, door openings, accesswidths, corners, and the bathroom allhad to be carefully thought out.Roni also hates straight lines, somany of his ideas presented challenges.However, as their policy is to neverborrow money, he had time to do whathe wanted rather than what could bebought or manufactured.The house is built on the centralof the three blocks, with the blocks toeach side left ‘wild,’ thereby retaining afeeling of being in the bush.The house and surrounds neededto be on one level, so some digginginto the slope was required. The soilstructure in the area consists of a toplayer of hardened ‘sandstone,’ withsandy soil beneath. Using his trustyrebuilt 1952 Fordson tractor ‘Freddie,’Roni removed this top crust carefullyso as not to smash it. These pieces wereused to build the retaining wall and oneof the feature house walls, and the sandbelow was used for the walls.Stabilised rammed <strong>earth</strong> was chosenfor the walls, as the site soil was notsuitable for mud bricks. In 2002 thewalls were built.Concrete columns were cast at eachcorner of the house. Cast concretewindow and door arches were made informwork on the back of a trailer, backedinto position and lifted into positionwith ‘Freddie’ power. The arches havedifferent patterns on each side; one sidefeatures a raised seahorse incorporatedinto the formwork, with a freeformdesign on the other side incorporatingglass nuggets and star designs. The archeswere placed so that some of the seahorsesare inside, others outside.The walls were then built betweenthese concrete sections. Roni made hisown formwork; a single form 1.7m longby 600mm high was used over and over.The sand was mixed with around 10%This page: Many features at Laviv were inspiredby the practicalities of the home – recycledtimber to create striking doorways, a libraryand framed view for the loo, concrete columnsand frames provide support and beauty.© www.theownerbuilder.com.au • 02 4982 8820TOB 148 • August/September 2008 • 41