Leaving his English home at the age of 16 to travel the world, Graham Hannah had his heart set on settling down in rural New Zealand…
His aim was to create a cave-type dwelling that was stable, dry, and free of moisture seepage through the clay walls-and to use all natural materials in the process.
Using huge beams of local New Zealand timbers, he framed a structure within the “cave” and filled the entire area with tons of compacted sand, covering both the vertical and horizontal beams. He then laid large river stones from the local mountain stream on top of the sand. To create the roof of the cave, he mixed reinforced concrete. Which was poured over the sand and river stones, with the concrete roof being embedded in the existing bank of solid clay walls.
Once the concrete set up, the sand was dug out, leaving the vertical and horizontal beams and the exposed river stones locked into the concrete roof structure…
–Jessie and Craig Moon
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