Building a future:

George Clarke celebrates the world’s most innovative small space design with the return of his Amazing Spaces TV series.

George Clarke celebrates innovative design ideas.

Building is in George Clarke’s blood. The 43-year-old British architect, who has presented such popular programmes as Build A New Life In The Country, The Restoration Man, Old House New Home, Amazing Spaces: Shed Of The Year and George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces, recalls a childhood based on building.

“My grandfather was a builder,” Clarke says, “so as a kid I hung out with him on building sites during the school holidays – long before health-and-safety regulations put a stop to that.

“I sat next to him in the cabin of these huge diggers and loved the process of seeing things being built with blood, sweat and tears.

“At 16, I left school and started work as an intern in a local architect’s practice. To make ends meet through university, I did up people’s houses.”

Clarke went on to become a highly regarded architect.

Then in 2005, when Channel 5 in the UK was having problems finding a suitably magnetic building professional to host its new show, Build A New Life In The Country, he was invited to screen-test for the role – and a highly successful TV presenter was born.

He is notable for the innovation and imagination he invests in his work. That is evident in one of his best-loved shows, George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces, which returns to TVNZ 1 this week.

In this series, he converts unorthodox objects – such as milk floats, boats, aquariums and horse boxes – into astonishing dwellings.

The presenter, who has three children, gives his definition of an ‘Amazing Space’.

“It’s somewhere that you just think ‘Wow’ when you walk in,

when you instinctively have a positive reaction. After that, you think it’s a great design that uses interesting building materials, fantastic skylights or materials or natural light in an inventive way that might give a magical view of the landscape.

“But when you walk in and you’ve automatically got a smile on your face, and the space is just beautiful, that’s when it’s amazing.”

Clarke, who has also written such best-selling books as Home Bible and Build A New Life: By Creating Your New Home, adds that, “The story behind the space is important, too.

“And that’s what we look for in the series: the person brave or eccentric enough to do something different.

“It’s not about the master builder. It’s the cool little unusual self-build that’s different to the norm that makes an Amazing Space in our book.”

Over the years, Clarke has overseen some truly unconventional conversions. He remembers the most eccentric he has witnessed.

“One of the most surprising builds I’ve seen was by a woman who lived in a straight-forward suburban terraced house out in Essex. She built a cob house at the end of her garden, with mini-turrets and painted pink – a kind of mini-castle in effect.

“A cob building is made from straw, mud and hair mixed together and this woman made the cob bricks herself with her family. And that’s what made it so special and magical. Yes, it was mad, absolutely mad.”

But, he continues, “I find it hard to criticise anyone when they do something like that. She could have bought a standard shed, but she chose to make an event of the build, dressing in Shrek-style clothing to present it. You can see the shock on my face.”

Clarke’s own most memorable conversation on Amazing Spaces was equally extraordinary.

“The most exciting and unusual conversion I’ve been involved in was the caravan we converted for my kids and me in series one. That was extreme even for me.

“I bought a dilapidated 1974 knackered static caravan for £300. Everyone said I’d been ripped off.

“We then spent the next few months pimping the space – we reconfigured the design, gave it new electrics, insulation. People still can’t believe what we achieved.

“The before/after transformation was incredible – the most extreme I’ve worked on.”

Looking back on the whirlwind past 10 years, Clarke reflects that his work still gives him an enormous buzz because it continues to free his creativity.

“I love really creative thinking that can make the ordinary extraordinary.

“Great architecture is not just about buildings like the Shard or the Guggenheim – it can be a caravan, castle, boat or house.”

“It’s the cool little unusual self-build that’s different to the norm that makes an Amazing Space in our book.”

– George Clarke