64 | Tomik Architectural Builders BUILDING An earlier build for Tomik Architectural Builders on Waiheke Island. Kelly Deeks HAURAKI TRAFFIC SERVICES Temporary Traffic Management servicing Waiheke Island and Auckland info@htservices.co.nz 0800 680 687 PlaceMakersR Everything for every job under one roof. PlaceMakers Waiheke 102 Ostend Road, Ostend, Waiheke Island Phone: (09) 372 0060 | www.placemakers.co.nz Proud to support Tomik Architectural Builders The prospect of building a home out of shipping containers was an exciting one for Waiheke Ζsland building firm Tomik Architectural Builders, which has always enjoyed the challenges that come with building something dierent. But it was only the third day on site when the team realised the challenges of this proMect were going to test them like they’d never been tested before. ȊOur client had put some foundation poles in several years earlier and they looked good, until we went to set out and realised some were missing and some were in the wrong places,ȋ says Tomik owner Todd Flashman. “We wondered how we were going to get a new house down a big cli. We had to work from the bottom up.ȋ Set on a beautiful bush clad clitop section at Rocky Bay this new container house, which featured on Grand Designs NZ in November, belies our expectations of narrow spaces and an industrial look, but also of quick and cost-eective construction and the strength of steel. “We started putting them together, but some of them were 20mm to 30mm out of square,ȋ says Tomik owner Todd Flashman. “With the amount of intolerance in architecture, it’s challenging.ȋ As the five 0ft and two 10ft containers were cut into and opened up to create rooms, they lost their structural integrity and brought ȵex to each steel wall. Todd says every aspect of each container is dierent, so the solution can’t be designed with architecture or forethought with structural engineering. ȊΖt Must has to be adapted to with construction and carpentry on site.ȋ Still, building with these shipping containers Looking good on Waiheke wasn’t the proMect’s biggest challenge. ȊThere was never any ȵow that we fell into. With the site conditions, Covid lockdowns, machinery delays, materials delays, engineering delays, we never got into the groove with the project which was frustrating, especially for the client. We had a great relationship but it was hindered because we couldn’t meet our own expectations, let alone his ones.ȋ The fact it was being built on Waiheke meant every piece of the home had to come from over the water and be brought up Waiheke’s narrow and winding roading network, then hoisted down the clitop site. The containers and a 30ton water tank arrived in two loads on two dierent days, a fortnight apart. Tomik organised the logistics and sequencing of these deliveries which required one of the two roads accessing Rocky Bay to be closed for the 100 ton crane. There was no room on the road for the crane’s footing. ȊΖt took six weeks to plan two days of very expensive sequencing and to have those days go smoothly was an absolute highlight,” Todd says. ȊThere was so much manpower and machinery and it was all captured for TV bringing even more expectation, demand, and fear. When it ȵowed smoothly it turned our client around in terms of his understanding of what we can produce.ȋ Todd is more pleased with this finished home than he expected to be, and calls it ‘beautiful mid-level architecture that sits in perfect harmony with its environment.’ While the prospect of this project brought a vigour and vibrance to the Tomik team, Todd says on finishing, they were feeling slightly wounded. But given the right circumstances, they would build with shipping containers again. ȊWith our eyes a bit more open. We are always up for a challenge, it keeps us progressing every day.ȋ LTD cvplumbing.co.nz Waiheke Island | office@cvplumbing.co.nz • Plumbing • Gas • Drainage • Water Tanks • Septic Systems
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