The rewards of risk
At any one time, Chris Moller and his team have 20 projects on the go and, as he tells Colleen Hawkes, the riskier the better.
Interviewing Grand Designs NZ host Chris Moller is never easy. Ask a question and you’re off on a tangent, desperately trying to keep up with a philosophical viewpoint on a topic that scampers right away from the place you started. But even if it’s difficult trying to pin him down, Moller can’t hide his enthusiasm for the series he has hosted since day one. And he’s just as interested in the people who come on the show as he is in the houses they build. Probably even more so.
It’s the risks they take that thrill him. ‘‘What does it take to take that risk?’’ he asks. ‘‘If you don’t take that risk, are you really awake? Are you really here?’’ Which is pretty scary thinking, and enough to make an interviewer toss in the job and head for the hills.
He compares Grand Designs to ‘‘the other side of Country Calendar’’.
‘‘We’re showing our New Zealand stories, and it’s not just talking about ourselves as farmers, pioneers and people doing things on the land.
‘‘It’s really crucial to focus on our ‘made’ environment as well, and how that is an extension of what we’re doing with the land.
‘‘And we should not be building banal boxes. We should realise how privileged we are to live in this wonderful country, and our buildings should attend to our environment, and be informed by it. They can still be humble.’’
Moller is very big on the idea of ‘‘giving back’’. The Grand Designs builds he features are, more often than not, about generosity, and about people making a commitment to family and future generations.
The Uk-registered architect describes the show as the opposite of what most of us know as ‘‘reality’’ TV.
‘‘We are documenting a build as it takes place. You can’t orchestrate that. It’s not just about following the people, but also showing what is happening in the environment, which in unpredictable.’’
20 projects all at once
The logistics of filming the show are huge. At any one time, there are 20 projects on the go. The team aim for 10 completed projects a season, in the hope they will get eight in the can, and they are always working on two seasons at once.
And sometimes, the homeowners become close friends, says Moller, especially when he has been filming them for six years.
‘‘This series we are featuring Craig Jarvis [at Taylor’s Mistake]. He was supposed to be in series one [2015], and he’s still not finished. He’s become an old friend – we know each other so well.
‘‘And Lachlan Mcdonald from series one [who built a modern farmhouse in the Catlins] is a really good friend. I don’t have that relationship with everyone. It would be lovely, and it’s a huge privilege when I do, but I also have my family and architectural practice to run.’’
Moller admits the long builds of six to seven years are probably not economic for Grand Designs, but the show is still about recording that journey. ‘‘Sometimes, it’s like assembling a jigsaw puzzle and working backwards.’’
He also mentions the straw bale house in
Wa¯ naka that featured on Grand Designs NZ in the first series.
That house is still not completed, but it epitomises how tough the owners have to be to see their dream through. The couple, Mike Hodges and Catherine Mann, spent three bleak winters in a caravan on the site.
‘‘One night they were both lying on the roof to hold it down during a storm – that’s just incredible.’’
Moller has a huge appreciation for ‘‘battlers’’. He also references Dunedin builder Harlem Irwin, and his suspended house on a glass bridge.
‘‘His skills are unbelievable. He has made all the furniture, including a kitchen from an old chemistry bench, and he did it for a song. It’s all the more beautiful because of that.’’
‘‘We should not be building banal boxes. We should realise how privileged we are to live in this wonderful country, and our buildings should attend to our environment, and be informed by it. They can still be humble.’’