An experimental house built by a Japanese professor who brought rice fields to Kaipara has hit the market for sale.
110 Gibbons Road, in Kaiwaka, is the brainchild of Yoshimasa Sakurai, who died earlier this year aged 86.
Sakurai bought the 9171sqm plot of land in 1991 for $21,500 and set about creating a sustainable home surrounded by rice fields.
Born in 1938 in Kobe, Japan, Sakurai graduated in architecture in 1971, going on to gain a doctorate in engineering in 1983. By 1990 he was becoming more and more concerned about the environment, and made a pledge to make changes in his own life.
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He set himself the following goals:
(1) To live using natural energy
(2) To build a house using locally grown and/or existing materials
(3) To live without producing any contamination from daily life
(4) To be self-sufficient by organic farming, and
(5) To have a joyful life
Out of this came his project at Gibbons Road, which he wrote about extensively on his blog, ecohouse.co.nz.
The blog details how the project came together. He felt there was no space in Japan for his sustainable living project, and during the 1980s he began to consider New Zealand, where he had many friends. He wrote that labour, construction and materials costs were more reasonable here than in Japan.
The property was the result of a New Year's resolution made by Sakurai in 1990. Photo / Supplied
Inside the two-bedroom eco-home. Photo / Supplied
Sakurai attended and presented at an earth building conference at the University of Auckland in November 1990, after investigating Japanese earth building methods. He proceeded to build his own home with the help of a group of students who had travelled over from Japan. There are pictures at Ecohouse.co.nz of Sakurai thatching his own home.
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His ongoing experiments covered a wide range of sustainable living concepts including bio gasification of human waste, solar energy collection and use, and power production from windmills on the property.
In his blog, Sakurai wrote about building a sleeping chamber in the basement, which would be thermally insulated. This may relate to the large cellar mentioned in the property listing. His blog also talks about an experiment with heating an outside bath by burning kikuyu, a grass often considered a weed in New Zealand.
Sakurai's note explaining how the house works. Photo / Supplied
Artist Ruby White wrote about Sakurai’s experiments with rice growing (he produced 66kg of rice annually for more than 30 years). She had tracked Sakurai down as a result of a search to find New Zealand-grown rice and husks for a ceramics project. A YouTube video by Sakurai led White to Kaiwaka to what at the time she believed to be the only rice paddy in the country.
That YouTube video is one of many that Sakurai published on his channel yoshiecohouse. The videos, which can still be viewed, covered everything from his joy of living, to thatching, and even videos of handmade music gatherings. “It’s not easy, but one gets freedom and one can express his creativity to have a meaningful and joyful life,” he said in one of the videos.
Sakurai’s 170sqm, two-bedroom home is being sold by his estate and is listed with LJ Hooker agent Craig Kenyon with a price tag of $710,000 – below the 2023 RV of $750,000.
Part of the Otamatea Eco-Village and for sale by negotiation is 364 Oneriri Road, in Kaiwaka. Photo / Supplied
The Gibbons Road home is not the only eclectic property listed with Kenyon. He is also selling a six-bedroom home that’s part of the Otamatea Eco-Village, which was founded with the intention of practicing permaculture in a spirit of co-operation, mutual support and respect for one another.
The two-hectare property at 364 Oneriri Road, Kaiwaka, boasts views of the Rapere inlet and the gardens feature a waterfall.
Residents at the village have come from all over the world. One, Wolfgang Hiepe, told OneRoof some live more independent lives than others. “Some of the people here live already a relatively private existence, whereas others are more communally minded.”
Some examples of the agreements include owners working three hours a week per section towards maintenance and communal projects, and all the land being treated organically.
364 Oneriri Road, Kaiwaka has an RV of $860,000 and is for sale by way of negotiation.
- 110 Gibbons Road, in Kaiwaka, Kaipara, is priced $710,000
