A Kiwi couple jumped at the chance to buy a Japanese professor’s experimental house in Northland.
Listing agent Craig Kenyon, from LJ Hooker, told OneRoof the buyers had been looking for a home for some time when they came across Yoshimasa Sakurai’s property on Gibbons Road, in Kaiwaka.
They fell in love with it immediately, Kenyon said, and scooped it up two weeks after it first hit the market with an asking price of $710,000.
Sakurai, who died earlier this year aged 86, bought the 9171sqm plot of land in 1991 for $21,500 and set about creating a sustainable home surrounded by rice fields.
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Born in 1938 in Kobe, Japan, Sakurai graduated in architecture in 1971 and subsequently gained a doctorate in engineering in 1983. By 1990 he was becoming more and more concerned about the environment, and pledged to make changes in his own life.
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His experiments in sustainable living included bio-gasification of human waste, solar energy collection, and the production of power from windmills. He also introduced rice paddies to New Zealand, and his home attracted visitors from around the country.
Kenyon said his buyers had spent time in Japan. “They saw the house and it resonated with them. They had been looking for a long time.”
Sakurai wrote extensively about the house in his blog, ecohouse.co.nz.
Inside the two-bedroom eco-home. Photo / Supplied
The property was the result of a New Year’s resolution Sakurai made in 1990. Photo / Supplied
In it he detailed 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 about building a sleeping chamber in the basement and talks about an experiment with heating an outside bath by burning kikuyu, a grass often considered a weed in New Zealand.
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 and to what at the time she believed to be the only rice paddy in the country.
Kaipara is known for its alternative homes, and Kenyon has another one for sale in the Otamatea Eco-Village. The village was founded with the intention of practicing permaculture in a spirit of co-operation, mutual support and respect for one another.
Ray White agent James Alexander, who also sells in the area, said he misses the ramshackle-style properties that used to be a feature of Northland’s real estate landscape.
This Swiss chalet-style home at 8 Walker Terrace, in Te Kopuru, Kaipara, goes to auction on November 21. Photo / Supplied
The Funky Fish, at Baylys Beach, is looking for a new owner. Photo / Supplied
“Ramshackles used to be quite popular and quite common in the Waipū District. But they’ve either been gobbled up, or people have taken the old shacks away and replaced them with newer properties. So, it’s a bit of a bygone era really,” he told OneRoof.
“I’d love to see more, because I love selling them. They are interesting and they’re nostalgic and they take me back to when I first came on New Zealand in 1995. So, it’s quite an experience for me as an agent. But there’s not many of them and when they do come up, they don’t hang around.”
Another eclectic Kaipara home that has just come onto the market is 8 Walker Terrace, Te Kopuru. The property, which looks like a Swiss chalet and has a cinema room, is listed with Jean Johnson, of Century 21.
Johnson said she was also selling the well-known Baylys Beach Funky Fish. The original structure, erected in the 1950s, functioned as a general store and post office, then over the years became a gig venue for touring bands. It also has a Hundertwasser-esque toilet. The Funky Fish is being auctioned onsite on November 21.
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