Environmentally friendly house had local input | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

A Rotorua Lakes High School old boy is helping New Zealand take on the world.

John Gilmour and 24 other Victoria University students are part of the First Light project - the first Southern Hemisphere entry to the biennial Solar Decathlon which is run by the United States Energy Department and requires contestants to design and build an environmentally friendly home. The First Light house came third out of 20 teams chosen from hundreds around the world.

Mr Gilmour said the house showcased unique aspects of New Zealand's landscape and culture.

"It's designed as a sort of Kiwi bach ... we really wanted to show how Kiwis live outside as much as they live inside."

He should know, having spent most of his childhood at Lake Tarawera, where most properties are holiday homes.

The architecture of the First Light house scored 95 out of 100, one point behind overall winners the University of Maryland.

Mr Gilmour, who is in the final year of a bachelor of architecture studies, was part of a four-person landscape design team.

Working on the project was "an amazing learning curve and an awesome start" to a career, he said.

The landscape represented New Zealand's coastal, midland, forest and alpine environments in turn as visitors walked from the entrance to the exit of the house.

The First Light team took on the decathlon on top of their university workload.

"The most challenging part was keeping up with schoolwork," Mr Gilmour said.

Their efforts placed First Light first or first equal in three of the decathlon's 10 subcategories.

The house was one of seven to score full marks in the energy balance contest.

This meant the photovoltaic panels on the roof produced at least as much energy as the house used.

It cost around $300,000, but could be built more cheaply with different materials, particularly because a normal house would not have to spend 12 weeks on a boat, Mr Gilmour said.

While it was in America, 300,000 people were estimated to have seen the First Light house, which is now on the way back to a new owner in New Zealand.

Its name came from the fact that New Zealand is the first country to see the sun each day.