1 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 Sauce... '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. I 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. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2016 Man, what a beautiful view. I've never been up here. Thank you very much for bringing me here. We can see everything. We've got Wynyard Quarter, the Sky Tower, downtown Auckland, all the way to round the bays. Auckland is a beautiful city, isn't it? It is, and a beautiful country, isn't it? Yeah. Aren't we so lucky? And we've seen a lot of it. And we're almost coming to the end of our journey. Yeah. Well, thanks for coming. You know, it's been a good journey, and I've liked the way you're engaging with architecture and the home. Look, should we embrace? I feel like we need to hug it out. I'm happy. OK, good. Yeah, just thought I'd check. Yeah. No, no. I'm good. Look, let's` let's recap what we saw last time. We've looked at leaky homes. I definitely don't want a leaky home. Seeing a difference in the materials used. Also, an alternative lifestyle. What's the future of the NZ home? Well, I'm glad you asked me that. Tonight, The NZ Home comes full circle as we examine everything we've discovered about how we've come to live in the homes we do and how that impacts on our future. PLAYFUL MUSIC You know, it's interesting. Right back, early Maori, I think they got it right in many instances. They orientated towards the sun. They had high levels of insulation. They are the basic principles of sustainability. Yeah. It just makes perfect sense to me. And that certainly happens now. You know, we are mindful of the future, the planet. I think we haven't been great custodians of looking after our planet in the building industry. Perhaps now, though, we are thinking about our kids, and our kids' kids. Which is arguably what we should have been doing all along. RELAXED MUSIC And if a home can be a laboratory, it's this one in suburban Auckland. A showcase for what can be done with a bit of good planning and a green bent, this little home's a stunner ` even though it may not exactly blend into the street. Point Chevalier in Auckland. It's full of bungalows. It's almost Bungalow Central, but I know, and you know, this is not a bungalow. Goran, you are on fire this morning. Yeah, lucky it's raining, eh? KNOCK AT DOOR Hey. Nice to see you. Gidday, Shay. How are you? Shay, this is Goran. Goran, Shay. Nice to meet you, mate. How are ya? You too. Come in. And a friend. And Sky. Come on, friend. Come on, Sky. Shay and Jo have built, and live in, a kind of show home for zero-energy living. RELAXED MUSIC Thanks very much for having us in your home. The first thing I notice is how warm it is, yet it's quite chilly outside. So, how have you heated this place? We don't heat the house. You don't? > Nope. Well, how is it so warm? We just heat it from the sun. So, you get the heat in and then keep it inside so it stays warm. So it's more about insulation and taking the heat and trapping it, and making sure it can't escape? Yup. We've got performance glass, double glazing, but it's also got a coating on it which helps to reflect the heat back into the space. JAUNTY MUSIC And also a concrete slab at ground floor, and that heats up, and then that retains the heat. So you're saying that there was a whole lot of heat stored in the slab from yesterday's sun? Yup. Pretty simple stuff, really. So you don't have a fireplace or a heat pump as a backup option, just in case? No? No. Complete confidence. > (LAUGHS) That's astonishing. I like that, yeah. Same. I love it. There's very simple things you can do that we've done in this house. So, energy efficient appliances, all our lighting's LED. You know, those things you can do in any house. And you've got other features as well. I mean, the roof is really interesting. On the north side of our roof we've got solar thermal panels, which produce hot water, and they do 80% of our hot water use over the year. Then on the bottom half of it we've got photovoltaics and they produce electricity from the sun. We're grid connected so if we're using electricity in the house, anything that comes from the PV goes into the house, and any excess then gets exported to the grid. We're producing more than we use by quite a significant amount. So if everybody built houses like this, we wouldn't need new hydro plants down in the South Island? No, no. So, is it superexpensive? Like, can anybody afford to do this? There's a perception that it's really expensive, but a lot of it just comes from the design. So, it's a compact form, there's windows in the right places. CHIME MUSIC You save quite a lot of money over time cos you don't have to pay to heat the house. The other thing to consider is just how nice it is to be in here. The whole house is warm right through. CHIME MUSIC It's just a really great place to live. You don't have anything less. In fact, you've got more. How does that compare to your sleep-out? Uh, it's a lot better than the sleep-out. I have to use a heat pump to heat the 30m2 area and then come morning the heat's gone, so when do I move in? ALL LAUGH They make it sound simple, but I'm pretty sure it's quite a complicated way to build and live. And there's definitely a trend towards 'simple is best' in our homes. Simplicity can be elegant too. Absolutely. I think we lead incredibly complicated and complex lives these days, and sometimes we want to just have a home environment that is simple. Is this whole simple style of living borne out of our holiday homes? I think we're very influenced by that Kiwi ideal of bach living. You know, we live in a beautiful country surrounded by ocean, and we very much bring that into our home design. Mm. The way I think of it is that you don't need to have a holiday home; you can just have a holiday at home. But are our holiday homes really NZ homes? Just from the outside in, before you roll into the door, of course it's Kiwi. 1 All right, Ken. Come with me, mate. We're going to go meet Jeremy. He's the editor of Home magazine. He should be able to tell us a thing or two about the NZ home. So, haven't I given you enough good advice over the last few weeks? Oh, no, you have. You have. Don't get me wrong. I just think that he's probably more of an authority than you are. Oh, come on, man. Jeremy, we've been on this trip around NZ trying to find a quintessential NZ home. Maybe one exists, maybe it doesn't. I think somebody like yourself, who looks at NZ homes every day of the week, you're a great person to tell us if one does exist or not. I hope I can help. Yeah, please do. I think one of the good things that's happening in NZ architecture now is that we're seeing a much greater variety of expression. There's a whole lot of different types of house. But if you do think of an archetypal NZ house, it would have to be a bach. It's the closest thing NZ has to a unique form of architectural expression. So the home that we spend the least amount of time in typifies the Kiwi home? I think it represents something about NZ that the rest of the world doesn't quite have. We've arguably become much more sophisticated at making the space between indoors and outdoors a bit more permeable and feathered, I suppose you could say. The number of people that talk about having an urban bach, it's become a cliche. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's about that modesty and simplicity that we don't always experience in our houses. And people wanna bring those values back into the homes they spend the rest of their lives in. As part of your magazine, you award the Home of the Year. That's right. Shall we take a look at the most recent winner? Yeah. Well, the most recent winner is this great house by Richard Naish, which is in Auckland. It's really interesting in the way it settles into its villa-y neighbourhood. It references the way the villas on the surrounding streets interact with each other. It's an incredibly contemporary house and it's very smart in the way it plays a historical and a contemporary game. Actually, I think Richard's house is a fabulous new direction for urban living, which is rather bachy. You know, it has got this interface with the outside all the way through it. It's also very skilful in the way it uses this narrow site that it's on. He's created these little side courtyards, so it really feels as if the outdoors is being invited in to these lovely garden room spaces. When you design your own home, your client can't complain about experimental and perhaps challenging ideas. For an architect as good as Richard Naish, he's going to explore that opportunity with great style. Every decision we made about material has been highly considered ` regressing back to the '50s; the concrete block wall that goes all the way up the spine. You know, we've just left it raw concrete block. We haven't even sealed it with anything, so it is what it is. It's about getting bang for your bucks. Like the cedar, for instance, is the cheapest grade of cedar you can buy, and because it's full of knots, you couldn't use it on the outside, but we could use it here. PLAYFUL MUSIC We've used bent steel plate for shelves, and no carpet, just the concrete; light bulbs instead of expensive light fittings; hunks of steel, old railway sleepers for the kitchen bench; got a bit of rope hanging out the door there for a door handle. And that has grown an aesthetic out of it. It's the sort of house where you can come together as a family and have close, intimate gatherings or you can separate as a family, and the kids can be up the other end of the house with their mates, and the adults can be down here having a dinner party. Or they can just be across the courtyard watching TV, and we can have that visual connection without living on top of each other. It's beautiful. Yeah, it's a dream to live in. I really like Richard's house. Clever, comfortable and simple. As Jeremy said, there's a big influence at play in our NZ homes, and that's the good old Kiwi bach. It's aspirational to wind down in simple surroundings. But if the beach is close to a big city, it seems the bach lifestyle changes somewhat. True. In a weird kind of reversed thinking, people are bringing their city homes to the beach ` and it's not always good. RELAXED MUSIC UPBEAT MUSIC As we look towards the future, how our homes will be, I'm reminded of a quote that goes, 'The best way to predict the future is to create it.' That could have been written for a group of enterprising architecture students from Wellington who entered an international competition with their version of NZ's future. At last, Kiwis showing the world what we can do. And once again, with strong cues from the great NZ bach. Thanks for inviting us here, guys. Les, you are the ultimate owner of this fantastic building, but, you guys, this was the result of a design competition. Tell us how it came to be. Yeah, it started in our last year of university. We entered a competition which challenged university teams from all around the world to design and build solar-powered houses. The real challenge was taking something that was unique to NZ. What did it mean to be a Kiwi and live like a Kiwi? And the Kiwi bach was what really stood out to us. And then there's that other overlay of technology, and being sustainable and eco-friendly. That's right. I mean, we took this idea of the Kiwi bach as being that simple DIY, number eight-wire home that we put up on the side of the beach. But at the same time, we were going to an international competition that was testing the best in energy efficiency, energy generation. So we tried to marry the two of these together but still have a home that really felt homely. You'll see around a lot of the technology that's integrated behind the scenes, and using a lot of natural materials ` timber throughout, a lot of NZ recycled rimu. So it was about collating as much of this Kiwi story together as we could, and then, of course, it being super high performing as well. And coupled with that, you've got all this other amenity ` you know, really efficient storage, bedding, that sort of thing as well. It was about making a really compact home feel really spacious, about having it fully open plan. It's not a series of bedrooms as such; it's one communal space that everyone shares. MELLOW MUSIC And, Les, what's it like to live in? Yeah, it's wonderful. It ticked all the boxes for us in terms of the size. And then, above and beyond that, all that futuristic thinking, as well, was a huge bonus. Four times a year we get a cheque from the power company as opposed to a bill, so that all helps too. (LAUGHS) So, you're back into the grid? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can remember being on the beachfront, being shown homes that looked like Greek amphitheatres and marble everywhere and all the rest of it. So, you know, clearly not Kiwi. Mm. Mm. And then you roll up here, and just from the outside in, before you roll into the door ` of course it's Kiwi. You know, this is starting to talk about a NZ lifestyle and a NZ aesthetic. Right. I think it definitely is if we've got someone from overseas who identifies this place as specifically NZ. I think you guys have done it. That's probably the biggest compliment we've had on the whole project, really. I feel we can't quite leave the discussion about baches without showing you mine. Now, even I've heard about this place. It was in the top six in the World Architecture awards, won heaps of awards over here. (WHISPERS) There's our manager Neville. He's super picky. (WHISPERS) There's no fault he can't see or crack he won't spot. And no conversation he can't hear. 1 Mate, I'm looking forward to this. I've heard a lot of things from a lot of people about your holiday home. And` Is this it? MELLOW MUSIC What are you saying? Well, I think it looks like a wall from The Krypton Factor. What does a house really have to look like, Goran? You know, after all these weeks, just show a little bit of faith. I don't think it has to look any particular way, but if there was an obvious in point and out point, that'd be handy. Watch this. DRAMATIC MUSIC Oh my God. DRAMATIC MUSIC INTENSIFIES DRAMATIC MUSIC STOPS SUDDENLY Come in. MELLOW MUSIC MAJESTIC MUSIC Oh, Ken. This is tremendous. I mean, not only this gorgeous view out here, but, basically, the ultimate in indoor-outdoor flow, isn't it? Yeah, that's what we were trying to set up here ` the most simple structure. So, you've got a platform, to look at the view, and a big, shady roof. Yeah. And then we can open either side depending on which way the wind's blowing, and what you want it to do. So, basically, just push out the bifold doors if you wanna open everything up, and if it's a lousy day outside, close it all up, bring them back in. What we wanted is the kitchen, dining, living area in the centre of the house, and the bedrooms off it, so that people crossed and set up conversations, and they saw each other. But then, at the same time, you can have your end of the house and then all the rowdy kids can go to the other. Exactly. (LAUGHS) Away. Put them to one side. Away. Kids, down that end. Yup, the bunks are down there. RELAXED MUSIC Decking, unfold. We've got the same thing happening on this side, only on a grander scale. This is a little bit like a suitcase. You know, you come on holiday, you open your suitcase, you live out of it. This is the same idea that we've got in the house. The structure to do this is kind of heroic as well. We designed it so that we could manually operate it. We arrived down here, but when we actually worked it out, it took 20 minutes to rise and fall the decks. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) That's the last thing you wanna do when ya` When` Yeah, Friday night, like, yeah. (LAUGHS) ...you're trying to escape. (LAUGHS) So what we've done is we've put a little electric motor, geared the motor, and now it's a minute. Now, when did you build this place? 15 years ago. 16, yeah. Right. Essentially, this is a log cabin. What we wanted to do is have something that sat appropriately in its bush setting. So, we designed our own log weatherboards, if you like, so the outside also had that ruggedness to it. We kind of liken this to a pineapple, in a way. You know, there's this rough texture on the outside that kind of blends with the natural bush, but inside it's warm and inviting and rich. You've also got privacy here so you can shower, essentially, in the sunshine. Come and have a look. All right. You know, how do you live in a remote location, and the bathroom was one of those. The idea of dragging a bath out and having a bath under the stars` Oh, that's on wheels. It's on wheels. And, you know, if you're feeling modest... But you know me, I'm not. I know. And so, at the other end we've got the main bedroom. What a brilliant way to wake up in the morning. And what are these? Shutters on either end so that we can capture the morning sun, get a bit of sun and air, keep the insects out at night. Wonderful. You've thought of everything. What we've done down here is deliberately make it more enclosed. So this is two rooms where the kids retreat to for cool and shade. In the middle of summer, they are lovely, lovely, cool havens. Yeah. Definitely got that nice, close, log cabin feel in here, don't you? Yeah. Yeah. Much more intimate. The rest of the spaces all connect to the outside; these are enclosed and tight. We're pretty happy with the way it turned out. You keep on talking about 'we' this, 'we' that. Who's 'we'? Oh, maybe that's the royal we. It's me. Oh. Well, it's an honour and a privilege to be here, Your Majesty. (LAUGHS) Where's the throne? RELAXED MUSIC Buddy, welcome. Cheers, mate. Got an amazing place here. It was just a big experiment at the end of the day. There's nothing in here that's overly standard. How does it relate to our search for the NZ home, do you think? I think the bach, the holiday home, is part of that Kiwi dream, and I think a very important aspect of the Kiwi lifestyle. This, hopefully, is a bit of a reflection of that. Mm. So, you couldn't live like this in the city, could you? No. This is about doing something that was unique to this spot and unique to the idea of holidays. I mean, there's no front door. But I do love the fact that there isn't a front door. You know, you can lock this thing up, you know, pull the decks up, leave, and be away for, I dunno, a year, and nobody's gonna be able to get into this place. Well, that was the idea, so that we can close it up and so that it's protected from people` And the elements. ...but also the environment, the elements. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I might not say it very often, but, you know, you really are a clever individual, and you're amazing. Thanks, buddy. Haven't heard that before. From me. (CHUCKLES) (CHUCKLES) PLAYFUL MUSIC It's been a long time coming, mate, but I finally got ya. Finally got ya. What do you mean you got me? Well, I'm more appropriately dressed than you are. I can kick my jandals off and walk along the beach barefoot, but you've got your Italian, Portuguese ` whatever those are ` brogues` English. And you're about to get hit by a wave. Hey, look, do you think, in all seriousness, that the Kiwi bach, the NZ holiday home, could it influence our actual homes? Well, I think it does. I think the Kiwi dream is partly that connection with the great outdoors. You know, our living areas do connect to the outdoors in a way that a lot of European, even Australian and American homes, don't. Yeah. So, it's that simplicity versus complexity thing, isn't it ` that kind of debate. I mean, you have proven that you can keep things simple but still have them elegant and beautiful. As Vitruvius, the old Roman architect, said, 'All good buildings need to have a firmness, commodity and delight.' And what he meant by that was they needed to be practical but they also needed to be beautiful. All right. So what kind of techniques are we gonna use from your holiday home in my home in Birkdale? We might have to do some other things to your house, Goran. Sorry, mate. Just a few. (CHUCKLES) Yeah. It's a problem. CLOCK TICKS, ENGINE REVS RELAXED MUSIC Now, all of this has got me thinking, Ken. What could be possible, what could be achieved in terms of the perfect community that` the best possible city that we could create? I mean, look at Christchurch, for example. They've recently been devastated by earthquakes. Do they still have an opportunity to build in a similar fashion, or do it even better than Napier? Christchurch should be the best medium-rise, sustainable city in the world. It should be looking at being a good custodian of the planet. It should be looking at alternative energy sources, and it should be looking at these denser communities because they are more cost effective to run. We need to get out of that car model and think about what's best for people. Need to start thinking about walking, about using a bicycle, using buses and trains, yeah? Exactly. All right. So, um, shall we go and see the town planner? Let's give him some ideas. Yeah. (LAUGHS) And if you're going to talk to a town planner or urban designer these days, maybe Christchurch is exactly where we should be looking. Hugh Nicholson has first-hand knowledge of earthquake destruction. He's facing the rebuild of his own home on a hillside in Cashmere. Well, welcome to my house. Well, what's left of it. (LAUGHS) This was the kitchen. I had a kitchen table sitting here on these tiles. It was a beautiful, 1920s, triple-brick house. Lots of warmth and, you know, the sun would come streaming in. It's kind of hard to remember it now. For probably two years it was a pile of bricks sitting here, which we saved at the last minute, with a thought that we should keep something from the old house in the new. And, as you can see, we've finally started work replacing the retaining walls. So, we're still negotiating with our insurance company about the value of the house, about replacing it, four years later and, um, looking forward to a resolution. When the ground you stand on shakes and your houses fall over, really shakes the way you feel about life and your sense of security and stability, and it's really amazing. Really did bring out the best in people. I think at the heart of a resilient city is actually the neighbourhood. It's the people who live within walking distance of you. Christchurch people are incredibly proud of their city and want to see it rebuilt, and what we've come to realise is it might've only taken a day to destroy the city, but it's a 20-year, 30-year project to rebuild it. Cities are incredibly complex, and I'm sure we'll look back and we'll say that we made a tremendous success of some opportunities, and there are other things where we'll wonder, 'Well, goodness,' you know, 'how did we let that happen?' It's probably a chance to have a good, hard look at ourselves. What we build really reveals the underlying values in our society. MELLOW MUSIC Tony van Raat's an architect and an academic. Maybe that's why he has a more radical stance when it comes to the Christchurch rebuild. There was a real opportunity in Christchurch for the government to say, 'Right. Christchurch will be the laboratory for sustainable 21st century cities. 'We'll provide enormous tax breaks for everybody in the world who wants to set up some kind of 'an industrial base here making sustainable energy products 'and we'll make Christchurch the centre of world attention as it develops 'into a proper 21st century city.' What does a 21st century city look like? It's sustainable. It's socially cohesive. It generates its own electricity. It recycles its own water. It deals with waste water and storm water, all of those things. It was a case where NZ really needed to have a government architect, because it needed somebody at a high level talking to Cabinet about this unparalleled opportunity to make Christchurch a model city for the whole planet. If we're going to survive into the late 21st century as a civilised species capable of living well, then we need new models. We don't need replications of old models, and we need sweeping change, and that could've been provided in Christchurch, and it wasn't. I think that's actually a bigger catastrophe than the earthquake. Ken, that is one heck of a view, isn't it? But what do you think Christchurch will look like in, say, another 50 years from now? That's a big question, Goran. I mean, I really don't know. It's interesting because with the technology, with the ideas that we've got now, it could be something really extraordinary. But will it be? Who knows? Do you think the NZ home could emerge from the new Christchurch? Well, it could, but what is the NZ home? I think the NZ home is about a whole amalgam of things. You know, the site, the climate, the budget, the context, and, kind of, fashion, and all sorts of things, so I think the NZ home will emerge from here, but I don't think it will be the definitive NZ home. So what about the great Maori idea of community? How relevant is that in our future? A lot of the students were the girls who were here. Yup. They were the ones who were always hanging. Dunno where the boys were. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) 1 If we need to close even more circles, we need to look at ancestral Maori land being once again used for housing. These communities are becoming a nurturing place to return to or, in Maori, papakainga. 21st century thinking overlaid on ancient concepts of living, and you get communities that support many generations and branches of family, like this modern papakainga at Pukaki in South Auckland. It's a bit different in Birkdale. I hardly know my neighbours. Takaparawhau is the ancestral home of Ngati Whatua. Better known as Bastion Point, its once-troubled days are over. There's now a strong desire amongst the people to create housing on their land and encourage the scattered tribe back home. New and innovative thinking is bringing ancient ideas of community living into the 21st century. A university project led by architect Dave Strachan is exploring better ways to bring modern, comfortable and affordable housing into the papakainga. Bobby Hawke is a Ngati Whatua kaumatua and a qualified builder, so he's kept a doubly qualified watchful eye on proceedings. Bobby was on the committee for people representing the Ngati Whatua Whai Rawa group, and the students had to present to them all their ideas. A lot of the students were the girls who were here. Yup. They were the ones who were always hanging. Dunno where the boys were. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) Did you like that, did you, Bobby? (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) I thought it was wonderful. Bobby kept coming down. ALL LAUGH Bobby became a supervisor. Yes. (LAUGHS) UPBEAT MUSIC We have the opportunity here of tailoring this to the needs of the elderly. It's all accessible. It's got walk-in showers and level entry access, all that kind of stuff. We decided to put concrete on the ground ` what we call slab-on-grade ` and it's highly insulated. The roof is a super high-insulating material, and same with all the walls. So it's way better performing and, of course, it's facing the right way. Well, when I saw the way you were building the house, I could see getting a cheaper house and cheaper rent. (LAUGHS) But anyway, that's another story. Bobby, do you think that Maori had the appropriate way of living in NZ, say, 150 years ago, and now, slowly, this is a way of getting back to those roots? Because of our culture, we are very much family orientated. Wherever there's a need, we provide for those who are unfortunate, but that is the desire of most of us. And it's all part of that idea that Ngati Whatua have of bringing their people back to this very special piece of land. And if these guys aren't around, then, to me, young kids are not grounded. They don't know where they came from, who they are, that kind of thing. I think it's quite important. Cos at the end of the day, grandchildren take the limelight. Not the daughters or the sons, same in your house, it's the grandchildren. They're the main stars of our household, and they make our household. So, our papakainga housing is going well. RELAXED MUSIC And if your needs are modest, there's another style of home you might look at. The tiny house movement is a worldwide phenomenon, and Lily's home in Christchurch could just be one alternative future for the NZ home. Hello, Lily. Hello. How are you? Nice to see you again. You too. Lily, this is Goran. Hi, Goran. Goran, Lily. Nice to meet ya. How are ya? You too. Good, thank you. Take a seat. Thanks for inviting us to your little house. No worries. Now, how little is it? It's 14m2 of floor space, yeah. And then a loft, mezzanine up the top. About 18m2. (LAUGHS) Give or take. PLAYFUL MUSIC This is pretty tiny. (LAUGHS) Yeah, where's the TV? Non-existent. (LAUGHS) In one of these cupboards? (LAUGHS) So, this is your wardrobe, this is your bookcase. Mm-hm. That's ya storage. Yup. It's like a panic room, actually. Yup. Pretty much. When someone's at the door, you hide in there. Just before you guys came I just threw everything under there. Fallout shelter. (LAUGHS) I love the way you heat it. Yeah. They are cool, those. This is great. Fantastic little house. So what prompted you to go into a little house like this? > It was sort of a way to live cheaply and to go back to basics and, yeah, have my own space without a mortgage, and I also really wanted to build. (LAUGHS) I've always wanted to build, yeah. You had this inclination to get out a hammer. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Always. It's a good Kiwi thing, isn't it? < Yup. Have you ever had that inclination? No, not really. No. What's it like to live in? Um, it's wonderful. Yeah. The high ceiling kind of gives it a feeling of roominess, even though it's such a small space. I've never felt too cramped in there. Why did you put it on wheels? Well, that way you can get around building consents. Technically the house is a load. Here in Christchurch now the situation is quite difficult for a lot of people, and so if this is an option for shelter for people, and is affordable and comfortable for a certain period of time, then I think that's a great move. Where's the bathroom? Behind the door. Can we have a look? Yeah, absolutely. JAUNTY MUSIC Is there enough room for me to go in there? Uh, that's where it starts to get a little tricky. She is tiny. Can you actually sit in that? Yup. Quite comfortably, actually. I really like that you've got the round shower rose, the round curtain` Yeah. ...and the round tub. Mm. And you did the tiling. Mm-hm. You did the carpentry. Yeah. The plumbing. She did everything, Ken. She's the perfect woman. So how does this differ from a caravan? It has wooden cladding. (GIGGLES) It's quite a lot taller, substantially heavier, and much more difficult to move. Yeah. So you've never taken it for a spin? No. It's never moved. Oh. Not since I started, yeah. I'd quite like to see it moving down the road. Yeah, same. (CHUCKLES) Yeah. (GUFFAWS) I think it'd be great. Let's hook it up to the Jag. Oh, yeah. I don't know if we've got a tow bar. I haven't seen that. We'll get Lily to put one on. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) But aren't we losing the concept of heritage in all this modern thinking? Feel like I'm walking into a 21st century castle. 1 Hey, buddy. Cheers, mate. Just another day in paradise, eh? Oh. Look, what Lily's doing in Christchurch is highly commendable, but I couldn't live like that. That was tiny. It was pretty tiny, wasn't it? But I think it was an interesting house to visit because she's right at that extreme end of the NZ home. Modest means,... Yeah. ...modest materials, you know, modest aspirations. But I think that's kind of part of, you know, the story of the NZ home ` mansion at one side, modest at the other side, and the NZ home is everything in between. Well, you know me. I'm all about modesty. (SCOFFS) But that is even too modest for me. (LAUGHS) Keeping a connection with the past is an important idea, as we've seen. But we've also seen how being different can move ideas forward. So which is right? No one wants to live in the past. But I love the character of the parts of town filled with old homes. It depends on how you look at it. Heritage buildings were once new and avant-garde in their time. And for one family in Canterbury, steeped in heritage and tradition, the Christchurch earthquake presented an unwanted but incredible opportunity to rethink the whole idea of heritage. You know, Goran, this is the only building built in 2015 that has heritage status in NZ. Well, how does that work? Let's find out. Feel like I'm walking into a 21st century castle. Hello, Louise. Oh, hello. How are you two? Homebush has been in the Deans family for over 160 years, and prior to Christchurch's devastating earthquake, the name Homebush was synonymous with the grand brick homestead that was built here in 1851. It was a beautiful house. It just glowed inside, and outside. We'd lived there for 40 years. When the house fell down, after the earthquake, it was tremendously traumatic. In the end there was no option but to start again because, although we had looked seriously at rebuilding that house, we would've had to have taken everything down and started again. So, in fact, it wasn't rebuilding at all. It was building a new one. So out of necessity, you kind of had to rethink your whole life? Oh, totally and utterly. We decided to undertake the salvage ourselves so that we could retrieve as much as we could. With all of the subsequent earthquakes, bits of the roof were falling off, and very, very, very brave heroes, who rescued, and did salvage, got the doors out, got the stairs out, got the furniture out. You know, we were just full of admiration. But the house was a write-off. So where to from here? We wanted to build a house that was uniquely NZ. Local materials, local people, all combining together. Ian Athfield came down and had a look. By the time I'd sort of looked at this coloured painting ` beautiful, just coloured, it was painted with a paintbrush. It wasn't like your normal ground plan. I said, 'When do I move in?' Because it was just right. It was that open plan that would do for families, it was flexible and you could do with a space in the future that we don't know about yet. And that statement seems to sum up Louise's approach to the situation ` if you can't keep a heritage building, create a new piece of history. PLAYFUL MUSIC Before it was even started, it was a Category 1, Historic Places Trust. There's a boundary round the historical structures that are here to make it an historic place. So that meant that this was gathered into that loop immediately. So it makes it even more special that you're building something from scratch and, you know, that's that treasuring of NZ's heritage, and that positive hope, promise, of the future. SWELLING MUSIC Well, what I love about this place is that Louise has made new history by incorporating old history. Do you think it's our Scottish tendencies? (LAUGHS) > Never waste anything. Yeah. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) GRAND MUSIC 200 years from now they might be talking about this home being the original NZ home. (SIGHS) It's really interesting to pitch forward and see how people are going to be living. I was always taught that there is a point at which we have to look back in order to go forward, and then you set forth to achieve on your own right. That's the kind of philosophy that helped create the great homes we Kiwis live in. The NZ home really does exist. Well, that's it, Ken. You know, the end of our amazing journey together. I'd like to thank you very very much for allowing me to accompany you on this` this road trip. It's been really fascinating, an absolute eye-opener, what's out there, you know. The amazing, grand-gesture homes, and then the wee small boxes that people find themselves living in. It's just been wonderful. Thank you so much for` for taking me on this journey. Pleasure. It's been a great trip. Thank you. Thanks for coming, and thanks for being a good student. I wanna know how does this all relate to my own home in Birkdale. You house was built in the '70s` '70s. ...and they were building a lot of cheap-materialed houses, the roof, walls ` it's not an architectural benchmark. What can we do with it? Well, you know, there's potential here, isn't there? I think so. A lot of potential. That's what we always say when there's some fundamental flaws. I got that a lot on my report cards at school. (LAUGHS) 'Could do better.' Yeah. (LAUGHS) 'Goran has a lot of potential, but...' So, where's the potential in my` in my property? The early houses that we saw ` the Victorian houses, Edwardian houses ` they disregarded the sun. And they were cold, gloomy. So what we should do here is talk to houses of, perhaps, the '40s, '50s and '60s, where there was this connection thinking about the sun. You look at your plan, dining-living doesn't connect to the outside, that northern part. Then, if we're ticking the living room to a little courtyard for the afternoon sun, we need to thing about that privacy, because, currently, everybody that walks along the street can look into your living room. Fundamentally there's a little bit of an issue with all your ablutions are in that north-east part of the house. Perhaps you'd tuck them into the southerly part of the house because you don't need a lot of sun there. Really? And we'd look at, perhaps, the main bedroom, which is in that south corner` Yeah. ...and think, 'Wow, perhaps that should be getting the morning sun?' If you're a morning person, orientate it to the morning sun. I've already renovated the bathroom once. Yeah. Well, who gave you that advice? Well, it was just a replacement. It was just there, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And the other thing is think about building sustainably. So we like good levels of natural light, lots of insulation. So perhaps we'd actually re-clad it, re-roof it as well. Yeah, what are we keeping? (LAUGHS) Yeah. Does anything remain? It's a really good site. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) Oh, even that slopes away. I think maybe we should celebrate with a hot chocolate, what about you? Maybe a coffee? Maybe an espresso? What about a hot chocolate coffee? So, there's some things that you haven't learned, eh? You know, this quality idea, this purism that I've been trying to teach you all the way through? Yeah. Quality, not quantity. So what you're saying is you'd be OK with me having a hot chocolate if it was in one of those thimble cups that you use? HUSHED VOICE: Get someone around here to grab one for us, would ya? (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS)