Earth construction in New Zealand during early European settlement

Abstract

The following report covers earth housing in New Zealand up to approximately 1880. The three main groups relevant to New Zealand's earth construction during this time are: Maori; the first European settlers, including whalers and sealers; and the British colonists. The focus of the research is to describe the earth construction used by all three groups, and the effects of earth building due to the interrelationship between the groups. The research objective is to develop a broad contextual view of historic earth architecture in New Zealand. In doing this the report provides information to draw conclusions on Maori and European rationales for their earth architecture and the influences on them such as: their histories; the presence of a foreign culture; and the New Zealand environment.