ABOUT US

Te Hapua Earth Brick Factory grew from a belief shared by members of the Muriwhenua Incorporation committee and the Te Hapua community, that earth bricks was the solution for improving the quality of housing in their locality.
After three months of making bricks, a pizza oven, an earth floor and beginning house construction, the workers of the earth brick factory saw the project as:

A great learning experience. The knowledge gained is of great benefit to our families now and in the future.

We are very fortunate for the opportunity to learn the process of earthbrick making and earth building. Also we have employment and we are confident about the future.

This is an excellent thing to happen in a place like Te Hapua; a chance to have long lasting healthy homes.

BACKGROUND
Muriwhenua Incorporation sought finance through HNZC to build two earth brick homes. They also needed someone with both earthbuilding and project management experience
They found Pam Laybourn who checked out the local soil and potential factory sites. The situation looked good and the trial bricks gave very good test results. Pam drew up an Action Plan and Budget.
The factory started up on 7th February, 2005. A container and lean-to sited alongside the Te Hapua dump/spare parts dept and next to a hill of suitable soil.
The crew were four couples from Te Hapua: Walter Norman (Foreman), and Violet Paterson, Sandra and Nick Marsh, Gloria Maaka and Jimmy Norman, Fonteyn Marsh and Tom Petera.

Negotiations with HNZC to obtain a loan to build 2 houses had been happening for over year. These negotiations continued for another 7 months before being abandoned.
Muriwhenua Incorporation provided intermittent funds to allow training and construction to continue.
Without the HNZC loan the structure the project on track it became community based with the project manager and crew taking the man responsibility for research, planning and implementing solutions. The support of the community, who didn’t want to see another failure, helped. Working together to find solutions became the shared growth strategy.
This is a cutting edge approach, specifically focussing on local problems and situations rather than trying to meet outside bureaucratic criteria. Searching out cheaper suppliers and more labour intensive options and consolidating the little they had so it went as far as possible suited local resourcefulness.

The Earthbrick Factory crew formed their own management committee and opened a bank
account in June, 2005. When the Task Force Green funding ended a trust was formed.