First Stone House in Vava'u, Tonga (Part 1 of 2)

Philip Wheeler has been living in Vava'u more than ten years. He is married to a lovely Vava'u lady called Nunia. Using local building materials he has built a beautiful and environmentally sensitive stone house using local coral limestone. Most people import materials, therefore incurring high costs and increased carbon emissions. Philip designed the building himself and it cost must less and is considerably more sturdy and long lasting than if he had built only in wood. Many people locally doubted it was possible, but now that it is built, it is inspiring much thought. It is probably the first and only building built of coral limestone in Tonga.


For more information or if you would like to help Philip realise the next stage of the project please contact:
Philip Wheeler on filipewheeler@yahoo.com
Or Mike Poltorak mikepoltorak@hotmail.com

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Stone house
• sustainable building
• ecological building
• Vava'u
• Tonga

[stevecotter1]

Thanks for all the info Phil great video. Can you give more info on water cistern, how do you harvest the 27,00 litres of water is it just run off from the roof, how do you pump to taps? Also can you share more info on the excellent cathedral ceiling 12 mtr span, what cost?Slab was 100mm thick, what size reo-bars and footings, did you run wireing inside the walls?

Thanks again for an excellent and informative video Kind Regard Steve [Port Vila] email is steve@parlay.vu

[ImageCandy]

HOW DID YOU CUT THE STONE?

[Heimdall01]

@ESETAPOLKADOTS : Well, looking at it from that point of view; stones are also unsustainable, I belive.

[ESETAPOLKADOTS]

coral limstone???? isn't that UNSUSTAINABLE?????

[TheWICCACHANNEL]

do i need a concrete foundation or can i use big rocks for key stones?im using small stones like basketball size cause my back is messed up and im on pain pills 24 7.but i cant build wooden walls to heavy to raise up what should i do?

[msjuicybum74]

This is awesome! Nice work :)

[OregonAlleyCat]

I am currently looking at a property that has an old rock pit on site. Price is low due to people probably viewing the rock pit as an eyesore but I figure, hey free building material! It is almost all basalt rock. Its a rather heavier rock, I would think, from the limestone you have used here. Would I need to do anything differently using a denser rock or would it not make much of a difference? Thanks.

[islanduh]

lmao @ .45 sec. "where in the hell did he come from" lol

[Soundgarden8497]

love your shirt dude!

[Majoofi]

how close to sea level are you? shouldn't this be on stilts?