Alexandra Falls
SEYMOUR resident John Novotny believes he has the solution to bringing house construction and its price, quite literally back to earth, starting in Seymour.
For most of us buying a property will be the biggest, riskiest purchase of our lives.
Environmentally, nothing puts more of a strain on the world we live in than the growing number of houses, slowly but surely spreading across the globe.
They use energy, water, and raw materials and are responsible for more than 50 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions.
But using a revolutionary construction technique Mr Novotny believes he can change the future of homebuilding forever.
This technique consists of compressing earth then coating it in a thin concrete jacket to create walls in a process John calls the Novoram construction system.
The idea stems from a rural California town constructed by Spanish missionaries, which used a similar method of dirt compaction.
Using the Novoram construction system process Mr Novotny said he can revolutionise homebuilding in a safe and sustainable way.
And he’s not the only one.
The process has been hailed as a breakthrough in construction by academics and politicians alike.
These includes civil engineering lecturer Dr Patnaikuni, who, in 2007, said Mr Novotny’s system was ‘the future of construction.’
Mr Novotny says it’s a disgrace that humans have not tried to find an alternative to the expense and waste caused by conventional house building and mortgages.
He said that his design for houses made from earth, which costs nothing, are also easy for people to construct themselves.
Previous houses Mr Novotny has designed have been given five star ratings from the Sustainable Energy Authority for their optimised, high mass materials.
The authority has also declared a house of Mr Novotny’s design the most energy efficient in Australia.
Mr Novotny said his houses look no different from others, are flood proof, fire resistant and essentially just as effective and innovative as conventionally built houses.
Mr Novotny said he has just received the permits to begin building his next home in Seymour and is hoping to commence work soon.
The North Central Review will be following John Novotny in his construction of an earth-based house in the Mitchell Shire.
