CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/6/2014

Superlight: Rethinking How Our Homes Impact the Earth

Crosson Clarke Carnachan Architects' "Hut on Sleds" in Whangapoua, New Zealand, is reproduced from Superlight: Rethinking How Our Homes Impact the Earth, Phyllis Richardson's fascinating new study of 40 beautiful, ethereal homes that offer lightweight, low-impact solutions for living. "The approach was very much about ingenuity. With an internal area of 431 square feet, space needed to be used well and sometimes for multiple purposes. This being a holiday home, there was also the issue of being able to secure the house during periods of absence, hence the giant shutter on the front northeast façade. And because of its location in a coastal erosion zone, it was a good idea to make the whole thing portable. But rather than create a sort of rusticated (or glorified) house on wheels like a trailer home, the architects and the clients stuck to the beach-shed typology and added thick wood runners underneath. These allow the house to be repositioned using a winch or tractor, an event that is scheduled to happen in the near future, so the sled’s aspect is no mere gimmick."