The Plant Room

The Plant Room

TEN TEAMS FROM TERTIARY INSTITUTES AROUND THE COUNTRY ARE JOINING FORCES WITH THEIR COMMUNITIES TO DESIGN AND CREATE SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS. THE PLANT ROOM IS WELLINGTON’S ENTRY INTO THE NATIONWIDE SUSTAINABLE HABITAT CHALLENGE – ‘SHAC 09’.

THE PLANT ROOM has been designed to improve the quality of apartment living while reducing the metered energy and water use of its occupants.

THE PLANT ROOM is a prefabricated room that bolts-on to a variety of existing apartment types. While designed to be applied to a single apartment unit, it can also be adapted and applied to a building en-masse. When grouped together over an entire building the external insulation of the building envelope, green roof, collective recycling systems and rooftop energy generation systems can be employed effectively through shared rainwater, grey-water, solar-hot water and electrical connections.

One PLANT ROOM provides:

• Hot water for one
• A healthy growing space for herbs
• Fruit and vegetables all year round
• A worm farm
• A rainwater tank
• Outdoor space, which can be easily enclosed to form a room.
• Shade to avoid summer overheating and collects hot air to circulate warmth in the winter.

Find more photos like this on Sustainable Habitat Challenge

Why THE PLANT ROOM?

Only a small proportion of New Zealand’s housing stock is replaced each year and only a small proportion of what is newly built takes an environmental / sustainable approach. Focusing solely on new buildings will only get us so far, and will get us there slowly. Therefore addressing the large quantity of existing, poorly performing buildings is critical.

Wellington City is characterised by a large number of inner city apartments and growing inner city population. Since 1991 the Wellington City Council has issued 13% of all new apartment building consents nationwide – second only to Auckland City Council (49%). From 1991 – 2008 new apartment buildings in Wellington represented 36% of all residential building in Wellington City. However the growth in apartment buildings has not only been seen in new apartment buildings but also in the conversion of existing office and retail spaces.

Unfortunately the quality of these new residential buildings has not always been good, often rather bland and very rarely address sustainability issues. Often the quality of cheap office conversions is worse. The recent survey of central city apartment dwellers in Wellington (Wellington City Council, 2009, Central City Apartment Dwellers Survey - a summary of results) found that two of the four most common dislikes of apartments were the lack of outdoor space and apartment size & storage1.

While the lack of outdoor space, access to green/open spaces, small sizes and lack of storage are often seen as reasons for people to live in the suburbs, 85% of inner city Wellington residents stated that they would not consider living in an apartment in one of Wellington’s other town centres.

Other issues with quality of life in New Zealand apartments have been identified with: Natural Light, Parking, Rubbish & Recycling, Safety, Security & Access, Ventilation and Views

However despite these issues there are some strong environmental arguments for denser living solutions. Because of its topography, Wellington city must deal with forced density in its inner city. It is a visibly dense city and there is a general awareness of higher density apartment living throughout the city.

The Plant Room team felt that higher-density living was a need we should address for both the Wellington region and New Zealand. The WCC also found that the vast majority of apartment residents who work in the central city, walk to work (73%) and do their grocery shopping in the central city (78%). This highlights the sustainable lifestyle of these residents. The concern is that environmental sustainability as a goal may never be achieved if our only solution is to build completely new buildings. New Zealand’s existing building stock continues to consume large amounts of energy.

Features

ENVIRONMENT
On warm calm days The Plant Room
can be opened on two sides to
create a private planted balcony in
the sun.
In warm windy conditions The Plant
Room can be closed-in while the
louve banks allow for high levels of
ventilation to the apartment.
In poor weather The Plant Room
can be completely enclosed as a
waterproof green house to watch
the weather from.

SNOOZING
A fold out day bed for relaxing
creates a 25% increase in living
area within the sample apartment.

DRYING
A fold-out washing line reduces
interior moisture from clothes drying
inside the apartment.
Drips feed the plants growing below.

ABSORBTION
A roof mounted evacuated tube
solar hot water system, sized
to suit the occupancy of the
apartment provides hot water
to the exsisting cylinder.
By providing hot-water this reduces
electrical consumption by up to 40%

RAIN HARVESTING & IRRIGATION
Collected rain water is mixed with
worm castings from the worm farm.
This nutrient rich water is irrigated to
trays beneath planter beds. The plants
feed themselves via capillary action
from water wicks which soak in the
trays.

PLANTING
Planter beds and a growing wall are
irrigated with nutrients from the worm
farm. This can provide approximately
30% of the annual vegetable needs
for one person.

WORMING
A self-contained worm farm
concealed within the seat planter
digests organic household waste and
feeds worm castings into the planter
irrigation system.
By composting organic waste household
refuse is reduced by 50%

How much does it cost?

Investment in one’s house in the form of renovations is a time-honoured tradition in New Zealand, and by far the lion’s share of private personal investment in this country is directed towards residential property. Apartment owners however are obviously limited in their ability to improve their property beyond its internal fitout. Within this context The Plant Room can be seen as a way for apartment owners to improve the capital value of their apartment and thus further share in some of the desirable qualities of the suburban model of home ownership but in an inner city context.
The cost of fabrication for an individual Plant Room from scratch has been calculated to be $30,500 at current market labour and material rates incl GST. This includes all materials and components required for a fully fledged Plant Room, prefabricated and ready to be bolted to your favorite apartment building (BYO plants, worms included). The cost for installation at MacAlister Heights has been quoted conservatively at $8,700, which when combined with the cost
of local authority consents and professional fees brings the total cost to $45,960 inclusive of GST. We expect this installation cost to be fairly typical of the cost of installation on a wide range of buildings in New Zealand, though of course there would be some variation according to local circumstance.
This is a significant investment, but is still below the average cost for residential alterations and additions in New Zealand, quoted by Branz at $47,100 per consent. Apart from the increase in value of the apartment it is attached to, the Plant Room will of course begin to recoup some of its capital cost in the form of lower energy and food costs
over time.
This estimated cost has been calculated for fabricating and installing the Plant Room as a one-off piece of craftsmanship. It is our hope that significant reductions to this figure could be made were the Plant Room to be mass produced, as is the intention if after in-situ trials it proves to be successful both environmentally and socially, and attractive to the marketplace. Factory production would also no doubt lead to refinements in the design to improve both build-ability and useability.

Download the SHAC Team The Plant Room Final Report Final Report (35MB!)