With an existing house which had suffered extensive damage through settlement over 50 years, demolition was the only option. With the main design feature of the new house, being the voluminous open plan central space with raked ceilings and a 13m linear skylight, the construction challenge was always going to be creating this space with an unsupported 13m roof ridge within a very small working environment. A 400mm deep 1.5 ton steel I-beam was used to span the 13m distance and 6m high reinforce concrete columns cast into the 330mm gable walls where required in order to support this beam. Another construction challenge was the houses insulation specification and the installation of high-tech sustainability components. Double glazing (with performance glass on all west facing windows) was used throughout, all roof assemblies had a double layered insulation system with a combined R-value of 4.2 and all screeds where cast with prealite insulating fibres replacing the river sand in order to insulate the floor plane as well. All rain water is channeled into a series of sumps throughout the property, where it is collected into a central sump and pumped into the storage tanks. From the tanks, the water is processed through a filtration and purification system and fed directly into the house. The municipal connection feeds directly into the tanks, required only when the tank level drops below 25%. A grey water recycling system has been installed which then feeds the recycled water into the irrigation system. A 15kw off-the-grid solar system has been installed with 50 photo-voltaic panels installed on north, east and west facing roofs for a very effective “plateaued” power production output.