WHIMSICAL MUSIC Two men from wildly different worlds join forces to explore the NZ home on a road trip in a 1960s Mark 2 Jag. 5.35 here on The Source. 'I'm Goran Paladin.' This is renowned architect Ken Crosson. Ken's going to show me his world ` Has somebody taken the rest of the house away? ...a world where I know nothing... He must've been smoking something crazy. ...and he knows,... Concrete, timber, galvanised steel. ...well, nearly everything. Don't get it. Expose him to culture, creativity and style. It's just another case of us stealing something from overseas, isn't it? Who knows? He might actually learn something. Were you not listening? No. I have a tendency of doing that. Maybe we will find a NZ home. Is that a challenge? And I'm up for the challenge. Yeah, cheers, Ken. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016 GENTLE MUSIC All right, Ken, we've tiptoed through the '60s. We've seen the brutalism, the concrete-block construction. There was the toilet-block house that belonged to Raymond. Where are we going next? Well, I think the '70s was even more radical. There was a group of young Turks really pushing the boat out in terms of where NZ architecture was going. I can understand why it would've been radical. Yeah? Because of what they were ingesting, right? It's the '70s, for goodness sake. I'm not stupid. There could have been a bit of that, I have to say. Yeah, cos look at that one house over there. There's a space shuttle coming out of the roof. It's a great example of the radical nature of Ian Athfield's ideas. I don't want what he's smoking. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) This week we travel from the strange to the spectacular as we find our way through the wonders and weirdness of the '70s. The early '70s was an era of social upheaval for NZ. We were increasingly finding a voice about world affairs. The Vietnam War, nuclear testing and sporting contact with South Africa were all coming under increased scrutiny. And out of that complex social situation, came an architecture that also protested the status quo. It was led by a duo of Wellington freethinkers ` Ian Athfield and Roger Walker, and their ideas were challenging and anti-establishment, but at the same time fresh and exciting. Ian and Roger were the great extroverts of architecture, and their buildings were their sandwich boards. 'If you stand out from the crowd, at least people know where you are and what you can do,' the thinking went. The homes were organic and responsive to the landscape. And weird. Don't forget weird. Roger Walker still works in Wellington. His office in the central city belies the influence he and Athfield had on the NZ architectural scene. At Ath's funeral, Tom Scott, who was the master of ceremonies, described us as the Lennon and McCartney of architecture. And I think that was a fair analysis. I think we were soulmates. I ended up designing a house ` tall perky house that's still on the top of a hill. And I met him at that construction site. He was with a client, and he said, 'My client is a little bit uncomfortable. 'He's getting something unique and designed by an eccentric loner architect.' He said, 'I just wanted to show him that there's somebody else doing similar things.' (LAUGHS) I was brought up in 'brick and tile' suburbia in Fairfield, Hamilton, and I couldn't understand how a truckload of bricks and timber would all end up looking exactly the same. The ceiling height was the same, whether you were in the toilet or the living room. The living room faced the street, cunningly designed to get no sun at any time of the day or year. I just thought, 'Well, this is rubbish. This is a crap environment. We can do better than that.' There was nobody championing a NZ style. I think people were fed up with houses that all looked the same and that were influenced by foreign styles. So when I had an opportunity to design houses, I deliberately made them anti-suburban. It was a period in which these things could happen ` with enthusiastic younger builders, younger clients who were wanting something different to what their parents had. We would go to the council, and we would say, 'This is not a bedroom. This is a study.' And there was nothing in the building regulations describing what a study should be. Similarly, you used words like 'a studio', but if you said 'dining room', it had to be so many feet by so many feet. So I suppose it was a little bit subversive to think about what you could do that was different. If you suggested corrugated iron as a cladding to a person, to a client, y-you'd be carted off in a straitjacket. INTRIGUING CLASSICAL MUSIC We put a sign on a house in Wilton once` once which said, 'This house is not just another box,' just to upset the neighbours. (LAUGHS) There was a feeling that NZ could be creative, could blossom into something that was uniquely NZ, and not a borrowed overseas style or not derivative from some previous culture. Roger's invited us to take a look at one of his more interesting creations. What am I expecting with this one? Can you give me any previews? Well, pretty much like the architect, it's a pretty quirky house. Yeah? This is, kind of, an era where these avant-garde architects were really having a crack at something new. The hell is that? Gidday, Roger. Ken, nice to see you. Nice to see you. Roger, this is Goran. Goran, Roger. Where's the rest of your car, mate? It's, uh` It's shrunk. It's a result of a one-night stand between a motorcycle and a proper car. ALL LAUGH Right, well, shall we meet the proud owners? Yeah, I'd love to. They've been maintaining this house for 40 years. I think it's amazing, isn't it? Look at the colour they've, kinda, painted for us today. This is like the Queen ` everywhere she goes, it smells of fresh paint. (LAUGHS) GENTLE MUSIC BIRDS CHIRP It's certainly not your average home, but it's dearly loved by its present owners, Ruth and John, who've lived here for 40 years, since Roger and his family lived here themselves. We'd lived across the road for 18 months. So when I came babysitting here, uh, for Roger, and he announced he was moving` Oh, it was for my children, actually. ALL LAUGH For your children. ALL LAUGH And so he announced they were moving to Auckland, and I said, 'Well, if you're selling, get in touch.' And so I sent John down to negotiate. We were talking, and the children were in the bathroom, which is round the corner there. And all of a sudden, a trickle of water started to run down over this lip there. They had the taps all on full, and it overflowed, streamed down the stairs. So it was a flood zone? Yes, so immediately the offer went down. ALL LAUGH GENTLE MUSIC Looks like a giant playground. Is it fun to live in? It is. It's got the most wonderful feel to it. It's just fun. The kids have loved it. And the grandchildren love it. There are no neighbours, total privacy. We really don't need any curtains. But we have them for warmth. And we've never thought of moving. You know, it's not as though we'd been through, 'Should we go?' We have never considered it. At the time that this house was designed, we were thinking` well, creating as many little interesting spaces as possible, and the theory was that there was no need to have a holiday home; you know, you could get away from the house within the house. The top was an eagle's nest, and in the bottom there were the caves. So there's a whole range of different experiences, and kids respond to that. Yeah. Well, so do adults. Have you ever grown up, Roger? Well, you` No, no, I've` No, I've` Look at the state of his shirt; do you think he's grown up? ALL LAUGH I've always been an infant in an aging body. There's this whole dimension of human life about enjoying yourself, expressing joyfulness. Why should your house be a characterless, sort of, gulag of a place? From my point of view, I think it's symbolic of our confidence in the '70s, where we were looking at the rationality that had happened, perhaps, before us in the '60s and '50s, and we felt confident to express ourselves architecturally. 40 years ago, when you guys first moved in, this would've been so much different to every other house out there. Yeah, it was different. It was. And it, you know` The thing that people talked about were the pipes. People in Bangladesh were living in pipes at the time. So some people called it Bangladesh. It was derogatory. You know, there was a derogatory, uh, attempt. And Disneyland was another one. More and more buildings, and in particular houses, are becoming a join-the-dots puzzle. Bureaucracy is prescribing our lives. We, sort of, joked once at the university; we told some students that MBIE are working on the ideal height for a roll of toilet paper. It should be between 800 and 900 off the floor, and it shouldn't be any further forward than the leading edge of the pan by 100 mil, so it was there and you could find it. And the student said, 'When's the legislation gonna come out?' And I said, 'It's a joke.' ALL LAUGH The point was they couldn't tell it was a joke. So I was, 'Once the MBIE are finished with the 10th revision of the fire code, 'they will be looking at the height of bog roll.' Do you think this is a version of the NZ home? I'd like to think that this house is representative of some NZ ideals. It's slightly quirky, like we are. And you wouldn't find it anywhere else in the world. I don't think it's typical of a NZ home, which is possibly why we like it. BIRDS SING So, Roger, this house has stood the test of time. I mean, it's just recently got an Enduring Architecture award. I'm very proud of the fact that these houses have stood the test of time and I'm not regarded as obsolete or being superseded by someone. GENTLE MUSIC BIRDS SING What an amazing piece of architecture. From the outside, it looks like they let a kid loose designing a home, but on the inside, you've got all these different cosy little spots. I really like it. Extraordinary piece of architecture, isn't it? It was the '70s, and a period of real exuberance. Yeah. So he was on something, wasn't he, Roger, when he designed that? It was the '70s. But surely it wasn't all avant-garde experimentation in the '70s. This is kind of my style. I have wall-to-wall windows or wall-to-wall wall. I don't have little windows everywhere. . By the mid-'70s, the average weekly wage was $95, colour television was the newest thing, and 18-year-old NZers could vote for the first time. And with the population touching three million, the demand for homes was being met by developers. The mid-'70s saw the emergence of what now could be called spec housing. Usually built from a standard plan, the homes were typically small and plain and often built with cheaper materials. Uh-oh, you're talking about my house here. That's right. State housing had moved with the times too. And houses like yours were indistinguishable from the spec-built homes of the day. Indistinguishable is right. Every house looks exactly the same. You know, you'd have a few beers one night, and you'd go home to find your house and you can't remember which one it is, cos it looks identical to the one next door and the one next door to that and the one next door to that one. The old cookie-cutter ` that, kind of, ticky-tacky little boxes on the hillside. Do we have to do this? This is, unfortunately, part of the story of the NZ home, so we do have to take the good with the bad. We could keep it brief, though, right? < Yeah, we'll make it short. Good. I'm glad we're in agreeance on that. So just for you, Goran, we'll sum this house type up with a montage. CLASSICAL MUSIC Thank you. But even amongst the sea of seeming sameness, there were oases of such elegance, they almost took your breath away. And one architect was creating homes of style and elegance. His name ` Ron Sang. RELAXED MUSIC Oh, look at this, Ron. I love that view. Oh, fantastic view. So, this is like a little glass box, isn't it? You're projecting out into the view here, but in behind, you've got this little nook, little den. This is kind of my style. I have wall-to-wall windows or wall-to-wall wall. ALL LAUGH So I don't have little windows everywhere. Yeah. And you've also got incredibly fine steel structure. Well, when you want a lot of glass, you haven't got any bracing, so you've got to put the steel frame in. Not the cheapest way to build` So are you an expensive architect, are you, Ron? BOTH LAUGH They all tell me that. (LAUGHS) So I could afford you, Ken, but I can't afford Ron? Stick with me. As I say, 'I'm expensive but good.' (LAUGHS) So what are you saying about me, Ron? So what's he ` cheap and nasty? Cheap and nasty. ALL LAUGH RELAXED MUSIC CONTINUES I noticed this drop down into... What do we call this? In the '70s, we called it a sunken den. Right. Where you sit on the floor by the fireplace. Wow, sit around the fireplace. Yeah, yeah. UPBEAT MUSIC This house is pretty old. It's been around 37 years. It's a '70s house, but it's also got references here, that I see,... Hmm. ...back to the modernist work of the '40s and '50s. That's my favourite period of architecture. If you want a fancy house with a pitched roof, I'm not the right person for you. ALL LAUGH CURIOUS MUSIC My kind of house tend to wander all over the place. It gives you the freedom of having little bay windows in summer. You've done it cos it's easy? It is easy. Ron! (LAUGHS) ORCHESTRAL MUSIC I love this play of light. I feel like this house is just one big corridor, which brings the light in. I'm trying to create this openness in the house, not to have to go through doors into each room. It's open, yet it's also quite separate. Hmm, yeah. So you can't see the lounge from here or the dining room. It's a very long, long skinny site, so I can stretch my house right out, and I can have floor-to-ceiling windows right along here. Because it's private, I can get away with it. ORCHESTRAL MUSIC This is a house that actually talks to me a little bit about one of your other really important ones ` Hmm. the Brian Brake house. Nestled in the Titirangi bush, the home Ron designed for famed photographer Brian Brake is now considered a modern masterpiece. At once simple and spectacular, it's a home that defined what it meant to live at one with the landscape. One of the most unique spaces out there is the Tatami Room... that actually sits on a column. It is one of the most important rooms in the house for me. Brian Brake really loved Japanese design. I had to do something special up there. The Tatami Room is very much a Japanese-styled room. You go in there barefoot, and we've kept it quite separate. You go across a little bridge. Yeah, the whole idea is to give it a bit of separation. That house only had two bedrooms, and the Tatami Room is a guestroom. You go in there specifically to sit on the floor and to sleep. It's sitting in its own little glass box in the middle of nowhere. So it's private; you can close it off. To enhance the Tatami Room, I do this kind of thing like having timber ceiling, which is quite modern but also quite Japanese. It's a very special room. This is really my kind of house. TRADITIONAL JAPANESE MUSIC Well, it seems like there are two things happening here, Ken. One ` we've got this cookie-cutter style house, and it's basically a home out of necessity. At the other end, we've got homes like the Ron Sang-style home, which is a luxurious mansion, but not everyone can afford it. I think it was just the way we were living at the time. Developers bought up large tracts of land, they had a standard set of plans, and they just produced. And that was the only house out there for the mass market, so there was no real choice. The '70s was also a time when new was best. Old houses were considered ugly and obsolete... unless they were in a heritage area. Architect Marshall Cook's home in a heritage street in Auckland typifies the arguments of the day. What annoys me about 'heritage' is that everyone clings to it as if it's the only significant thing in the street, but everyone forgets the other stuff that's there. To do a proper analysis of a street before you pass a judgment on it is actually impossible for most people. I mean, the house on here had absolutely had it. Rebuilding a replica of it was certainly, I don't think, a reasonable thing to do. Was there any friction from neighbours who saw this being erected, and they said, 'You can't put this in there?' Well, by the time it came around to building it, the neighbours were pretty familiar with what was actually going in. And they were quite happy? Uh, I wouldn't describe their happiness as delirious. BOTH LAUGH There is one particular person in the neighbourhood who stands in the middle of the road every time she passes and screams out, 'Desecrator!' (LAUGHS) You're kidding? Not good for neighbourly relations. The interesting thing about it ` I haven't seen her for a couple of years. I think she got run over. ALL LAUGH HORN BEEPS At the same time, house prices were on the up. How did people even get into the property market? Neither of us really coming from any renovation background, you know, look, we probably took a bit of a risk. And all got the shoulder to the wheel for the right cause? Totally. Oh, 100%. . The early '70s was a time when anything seemed possible. Unemployment was almost non-existent, and it felt like it was always going to be that way. You know, I thought you and I, Ken, were a bit of a contrast, but how about the contrast from the spec houses to these monstrosities right on the beach? Look at the size of these things! Well, I don't know whether they're all monstrosities. You've got a whole lot of typologies from the little old baches right through to those extraordinarily larges ones, you know, where the architects and the clients really experiment with the idea of a new way of living and building on a clifftop or on the beach. You know what I'd say? I'd say that we're not going to find the NZ home here on the beach, but we find the NZ dream. A lot of people would love to live like this. Look, this is definitely about the NZ dream. We all aspire to this sort of backyard. I'd love to have it one day. I'd need your salary, though. (LAUGHS) I'd love to be a sports commentator. I know how hard that is. Oh, you might be able to afford a shed. Times are tough. By 1976, times in NZ were tough. Our exports to Mother England had fallen to less than 30% of production, a direct result of Britain entering the EEC. And to make matters worse, tension in the Middle East saw oil prices soar from $3 a barrel to nearly $20 virtually overnight. We even had carless days here in NZ. Carless days? You couldn't take your car out. What did people do ` like, public transport or just walk around, maybe jump on the bicycle? Can't imagine that. That'd be awful. What did it do to our housing situation? Yeah, well, it was really tough for people to get into the house that they wanted to be in. So one way of doing it was buying a house in a less-desirable area and doing it up. OK, so getting in at the bottom of the ladder and trying to work your way up? Maybe a bit of a do-up ` classic NZ DIY. Classic NZ DIY. Sell it, buy the next one, sell it, buy the next one. Which is what I'm gonna do with my house, right? You started on the property ladder. Work on it, and then work your way up. Yeah. I should've done that 30 years ago. Well, why`? You didn't need to. You bought a home in Ponsonby. You're doing OK. I'm not complaining. All over the country, young people were climbing the property ladder. Once unfashionable, the inner-city suburbs of our major cities were becoming the places to be as tired, neglected homes were reworked to suit the modern lifestyle. Buying an old house and renovating is one way of getting on the property ladder. But it's certainly not without its pitfalls. There are plenty examples of people who have been hurt by not understanding the cost implications of what they've bitten off. Yeah, but not just the cost. I mean, imagine` Take me for example. If I tried to undertake something like that, I would probably produce something that didn't work properly, and it would look ugly. I don't know what I'm doing. I'll help you out, buddy. Mates rates, eh? Always. I'll look after you. Yeah. All right, you shook my hand. You shook on it. Done. And I'm holding you to it. My home with the Ken Crosson touch ` might not need to take another step on the old property ladder after all. A bit like Rachel and Josh, who are nearing the top of that ladder, ironically, in one of the suburbs that used to be at the bottom. It's interesting to reflect, Goran, that in the early 1900s, this was workers' accommodation. But by the '60s, it had become an absolute slum. Oh, it isn't any more, Ken. You pay a pretty penny for one of these homes. You sure do. This is something I actually know a bit about ` you know, renovation. Did you see that show that I was on ` Our First Home? I thought you were a sports commentator. Well, I kinda do both. Multitalented, aren't ya? GENTLE MUSIC How did you get to this point? How did the journey start? Well, the first home that Rachel and I had was very much just a stepping stone for us. When we bought it, it was on that basis. We knew it was just, 'Let's get a house, get on the ladder, 'you know, so that if the market moves, we'll move with it.' So always with the idea of stepping up to the next one? Yeah, yeah. There was a big old villa in Western Springs that needed a lot of work on the grounds. Neither of us really coming from any renovation background, you know, look, we probably took a bit of a risk, but we backed ourselves. And all got the shoulder to the wheel for the right cause? Totally. Oh, 100%. We weren't looking to get in and make a quick buck. It was more about investing for the future. It's a way in. And we sold it really, as it turned out, quite easily as well, which allowed us to` ...get into this? < Totally. It's been a bit of a team effort. We've, kind of, kept it close. The architect's Josh's father, and the builder's our friend, and... there's lots of people working on it that have, kind of, got links. It's always about a team. I mean, you need a good architect, you need a good client and you need a good builder. The most important bit of the budget, I'd say, is your contingency. I thought you were gonna say the architect's fee. (LAUGHS) Well... Have you managed to stick to your budget and your timeframe? (LAUGHS) Or has it blown out in both aspects? You're presupposing there was a budget. ALL LAUGH So where to from here? We'll settle on this for a bit. It's` I mean, it's such a lot of work, and anyone that's done a renovation, it's massive. Then who knows? Yeah. Something else exciting. Yeah, exactly. I like it. This was also an era of mass immigration from the Pacific Islands. Where, and importantly how, were all those people gonna fit in? The early Polynesians, they were trying to paint their walls or their houses with the bright colours of the Pacific. . During the '60s and '70s, there was a big change in immigration. There was a lot of Polynesians arrived here to support our manufacturing and primary produce industries. Auckland was the destination of choice, mainly because that's where the workers were required. Yeah, and so... where do they go to live? Because they've got to live somewhere. Yeah, well, they ended up in the poorer suburbs of the inner city, generally South Auckland. Ah, OK. It must have been confusing for Pacific Islanders at the time. The NZ government on the one hand encouraged large-scale immigration to fill unskilled jobs in the flourishing manufacturing industries, but on the other hand, this was an era made infamous by the dawn raids, when mostly Polynesian overstayers were herded up and sent home. It's hard to feel like you're fitting in as a NZer with that sort of thing hanging over your head. But how was that reflected in our homes? Well, Lama Tone's a Samoan and an architect. Good to see you again. Nice to see you. Gidday, Ken. Perfect combination to answer that. Goran, Lama. Great to meet you. You're a fearsome man, aren't you? I've got these 4-inch heels on. I was told you guys are above-average height, so... BOTH LAUGH Hey, thanks a lot! There's nothing average about us. Come on in. Just when you think that it can't get any better than this, you see a specimen like Lama. (LAUGHS) I've always thought it could get better than that. (LAUGHS) Oh, come off it. Mate, you've played a bit of rugby in your time, haven't you? I was a late bloomer with the rugby. I started off in '95. My family moved to Samoa when I was 21, so the village boy used to come around where we stayed and said we needed someone to jump up and grab some line-out balls for them, so it all started from there. (LAUGHS) So how old were you when you started rugby? 24. Wow. Yeah, so I was 98kg or something like that. 98kg on, like, this frame? How tall are you? 6'6", 6'7". As a means of comparison, I'm 92 kilos and not even 6' tall. So I'm like a short, squat, fat person. Yeah, you're, you know, that way. Yeah. (LAUGHS) Yeah. Well, tell us about your journey from rugby to architecture. I travelled with Samoa around the world quite a bit, and I went to the '99 Rugby World Cup, and I lived in France, playing professional rugby. So I got to see all these weird and wonderful forms of architecture, and I think that it really sparked my passion to pursue architecture. I thought, 'Right, I want to have a good go at this.' What a great choice. BOTH LAUGH So, Lama, you're obviously a Pacific architect working in NZ. How does that influence the work that you do? I was very inspired by the ideas of Pacific architecture and then modernising those ideas. What are those Polynesian influences? Open space, multifunctional spaces. Polynesians really embrace the community aspects, so therefore you're making these communal spaces more interesting. You're also engaging with the outside or the exterior of your home, which I think is somewhat a Kiwi approach. Has NZ architecture been influenced by the Polynesian people that came here in the '60s and '70s? Yeah. The early Polynesians, they were trying to paint their walls or their houses with the bright colours of the Pacific. And also the fact that Polynesians come from more open communal spaces. Where they lived at that time in the bungalows where their spaces were really compartmentalised, they struggled with maintaining their culture in those spaces. If you drive down South Auckland, you'll see a lot of the Pacific Islanders utilise the garage space as a lounge, a utility space. It's really become a secondary living space, and they get to receive their guests through there as well. It happens to be right at the front of the house, rather than towards the back. So it's that sense of openness and engagement with the people coming on to the property. They're giving the space back to the people. Walls must come down in their houses. ORCHESTRAL FLOURISH Put it there, old-timer. Cheers, buddy. Cheers, mate. Another goody. Yeah. Mmm. Oh, that's good. A good Herne Bay espresso. Just treat yourself to a lovely hot chocolate one day. You won't be disappointed, I promise. I think I had them when I was about 5. So was that about 70 years ago? And I grew out of them. QUIRKY MUSIC So, anyway, getting back to, uh, why we're even hanging out in the first place, I was quite fascinated by the Polynesian style of living ` to make these huge communal areas and wipe out walls. That's exactly what I wanna do with a few of my walls in Birkdale. What Polynesians were doing was accommodating the way they lived. I think now with the housing crisis, perhaps we are having more multigenerational living. When I was young ` not so many years ago ` we were leaving home at about 18, 19, and now the kids, they` they're there in the 20s, and I think they come back in their late 20s as well, so perhaps we're actually looking at houses and bringing them back to what we really need and perhaps what we can afford. So I could probably apply that to my own house, because there's the wall that I think I'd like to get rid of between the kitchen and the lounge room. You've got a house that needs work, Goran. (LAUGHS) But I've got some ideas. It's a dwelling. I've got some ideas. Yeah. Well, I've heard about the late '70s early '80s, there was some pretty big spending going on then. How did that affect the NZ home? I loved that you're coming in, and it's an oasis from the busy city street. You're walking through that courtyard, and it's calm and quiet. INDICATOR CLICKS RHYTHMICALLY (GASPS) SILENCE (EXHALES SLOWLY) Mate, I'm so sorry. I thought there was time. You just pulled out. I don't have time to stop. It was a simple mistake. LOUD RUMBLING Please. (VOICE TREMBLES) I've got my boy in the back. I'm going too fast. I'm sorry. (SOBS) SEAT BELT CLICKS EERIE CREAKING HARSH WHOOSHING . You've taken us to see homes designed by the likes of Roger Walker and Ron Sang, and, you know, in their own, unique, different ways, they are beautiful. And when I look behind us, I see, well... I mean, how many of these homes are architecturally designed? Well, I suspect in this suburb probably none. Very few of the houses in NZ are architecturally designed. That's probably a reflection of our culture ` that number-eight mentality, perhaps. The good side is that we can turn our hand to anything. But perhaps the downside is that we don't know our limitations. Oh, so in other words, if we are going to enter into any kind of DIY, we should consult a physician, like yourself, first? Oh, maybe you do. (LAUGHS) Maybe you do consult an expert. You know, if you go to a doctor, you know, you expect medical advice. Perhaps you go to an architect that's trained how to map out the perfect plan, how to have something that's beautiful. All right, well, here's a hypothetical for you ` what would this suburb look like if those houses were architecturally designed? Well, I suspect it would be more engaging, more exciting and more enjoyable ` something that's beautiful. And if money's no object, then the concept of a truly beautiful home becomes reality. Perched on a hill in Parnell, overlooking the harbour and Rangitoto, there's an absolute classic. Designed by David Mitchell ` a former tutor of mine ` it's a breathtaking display of the art of architecture, early '80s style. The present owner, Janet, has graciously allowed us to visit and film her home. And I've asked David over to reminisce. Was he one of your better students? He wasn't bad. (LAUGHS) Wasn't bad. (LAUGHS) That's glowing praise, isn't it (?) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Janet, what attracted you to this place? It's a home that we've seen a bit of over the years, and I loved that you're coming in, and it's an oasis from the busy city street. Walking through that courtyard, and it's calm and quiet, and I love the privacy. And that reflection of the view as you go through the house, and every time I look back, I've got Rangitoto in that window. It feels like we're inside an abstract piece of art. Do you get that sense as well? I do feel like that. It strikes me as though it was a rather indulgent house, in a sense, David. (LAUGHS) It was fun to design, actually. Alan and Jenny Gibbs, who built it, lived in a pole house in Titirangi, and they were coming to town in quite a big way. And I remember ringing up a friend who knew the Gibbses and said, 'Look, I've got this living room. It's two-storeys high with a silver ceiling. 'And you go outside on to the patio and it falls straight down 8ft into the swimming pool. I mean, am I over the top? ALL LAUGH I said to her straight. She said, 'No, go for it.' (LAUGHS) So I went for it. It doesn't look overly safe out there. You know` No, it's not. Y-You're having a few drinks one night, you might slip down into the pool. < Ever thought about putting a rail in? No. (LAUGHS) No, there was no need to at the time. We lived in days of peril. ALL LAUGH People` People didn't worry. The kids went down to the creek. You didn't take them to school in a car. Yes. So we just built the terrace straight out there, and Alan and Jenny Gibbs accepted that there would be a little trough of water. So if you were pissed and you fell in a trough, you know, you'd probably end up in the pool, but you'd get a breath before you hit the water. BOTH LAUGH I came here with some friends just after the pool had been made, in the middle of the night, and broke into the site... (LAUGHS) and tested the way you could jump off that thing` < Oh, you did? ...and hurt yourself or not. I got my gear off and popped over the edge. (LAUGHS) And I hit the bottom, but not too hard, so I thought, 'We're OK.' ALL LAUGH It's OK. 'I won't be sued.' < Success. Won't be sued. (LAUGHS) I'm surprised by this huge support structure here. It's almost like a feature of the house, but all it's doing is holding up the edge of the roof. Uh, yeah, well, people have made jokes about putting a huge beam in to hold up a hole. Yes. ALL CHUCKLE CURIOUS MUSIC We did have trusses across the building, and Alan Gibbs didn't like the trusses, cos he thought they looked industrial. We realised that the light will come through and on to the water that was in there, and it will then shine on the roof and then you'll get dappled water patterns at night, which is rather nice. And then we had to cut another hole, and there had to be a round one, then a square one and then a triangular one. People who want to enjoy themselves and have enough money to do it, can do these things, and so would the rest of the population if they got half a chance. (LAUGHS) It is a home that is part home, part gallery, and part of the display is the view and nature. GENTLE MUSIC Yeah, architecturally, it's imagining people moving in the space. Like, you know that they're gonna go up there and they're gonna walk down there and then look down there. That's the stuff of architecture, isn't it? The other thing is you could put antiques in here. Houses that are strongly of their time remain strong houses, and they cope with other strong things, like strong art. Have you got any antiques, Janet? No, ju-just my husband. (LAUGHS) ALL LAUGH All jokes aside, this house is a modern marvel, but there's no way it's for everyone. Definitely, a snapshot of the '80s, I'd say. What was it like seeing your old teacher again? I was very privileged. I had him at School of Architecture, and then the first job out I was in their office. They were doing some extraordinary work around the city at the time, including the Auckland Music School and some fabulous houses. He's one of the heroes of NZ architecture ` an extraordinarily intelligent, detail-focused architect that's into crafting buildings and spaces. And we've just been inside one of his best. Yep. Yeah. Extraordinary house. You know, I think it was a reflection of not only him, but a client that wanted to do something a little bit out of the norm. Mind you, when you compare it to something like Roger Walker's place down in Wellington, maybe not so outrageous after all. Completely different scale, isn't it? David Mitchell's house was enormous, everything was large; where the scale of Roger's houses were very very tiny ` small spaces, intimate spaces. You were actually snuggling back into them. And we hadn't seen anything quite like what Ron Sang produced as well. I mean, the floor-to-ceiling windows and basically a long corridor ` let a lot of light in. I think that sort of architecture we hadn't seen so much in NZ, but it was very reflective of what was happening in mid-century American architecture, which was very much about flat roofs and floor-to-ceiling glass. We've got a code now that's far more prescriptive about heating and cooling and the energy consumption in our houses. I liked what Lama Tone had to say about the Polynesian influence on NZ homes, where they'd take a bungalow or a villa or whatever they happened to be living in and literally just wipe out walls to make a communal area, and I think they had it before we knew about it. Well, they had a completely different lifestyle and family structure. They had this multigenerational community. Yeah. So you had the grandparents, you had the parents and you had often a lot of children. And they needed spaces to accommodate those extended families. The '70s was an interesting time in NZ architecture and NZ society. In a way, there was a lot of radicalism out there. We were protesting against the house typologies that we had, and we had Walker and Athfield really doing something very experimental and something that was uniquely NZ. I'm looking forward to seeing where we go next, Ken. Where are you taking me? You know, I think we deserve a coffee. Or a hot chocolate? Yeah? An espresso. Hot chocolate, mate. A large one.