Reimagining the Kiwi homeownership dream

By Anita Perkins

The creation of beautiful and affordable architecture is the daily pursuit of Wellington-based architects Caroline Robertson, Tim Gittos and Jesse Matthews of Spacecraft Architects. But this is no easy challenge in today’s world, where strongly embedded traditional expectations clash with what’s possible in the here and now.

“The idea of homeownership is a cultural thing that goes back to the colonial period,” says Jesse. “Now land is getting incredibly expensive, but we still retain that cultural idea that every single person should and could own their own house and their own piece of land, and we’re now doubling down on property speculation as the way to build wealth.”

Tim adds, “That’s why these alternative forms of development are starting to crop up now. Land is so hard to come by under the traditional model that people are asking how else can we do it?"

Economist Brad Olsen agrees. He sees new attitudes towards housing and homeownership emerging as society itself changes. Rather than the traditional template of three-or four-bedroom homes for ‘mum, dad, and two kids’, there’s increasing interest in smaller builds for the ageing population or larger builds for people who want to buy together.

“That’s the struggle for a lot of people who are having to pole-vault onto the bottom of the housing ladder,” Brad says.

Affordable options and adjusting expectations

To make housing more affordable, Brad says we need to focus more on densification. This means more townhouses and medium-rise apartments that are well connected to public transport and good amenities.

“That’s the sort of thing that I think Kiwi families will increasingly opt for because it’s more affordable. A lot of people are not interested in trying to find the perfect house – they’re just happy with a house.”

This pragmatic approach informs the work of Spacecraft Architects. Having said that, Tim, Caroline and Jesse also believe you don’t need to compromise on beautiful and aesthetically pleasing design.

“The simplest, most basic house we could design would be atmospherically so much better than basically any house you could buy,” Caroline says.

“It will keep heat better and be so much cheaper to run.”

Making their own affordable home a reality

As well as being business partners, Caroline and Tim are a couple and know what it’s like to live in a small house, having raised their first child and started their business in a 40-square-metre one-bedroom flat.

Feeling the need to upsize, they made the decision to buy a section in Wellington with another family they were close to and build two houses on it. This solution meant they could afford a section without needing a mortgage for the land, and their friends and neighbours feel like extended family.

Tim loves owning a section with trusted friends. “What we’ve got here is amazing. You share the load, and you share the financial, emotional and legal risks of doing things.”

Community living in central Wellington

Caroline and Tim are taking this personal experience and using it as the basis for one of Spacecraft’s new projects – the Urban Habitat Collective (UHC), a co-housing development in Wellington.

Jesse says co-housing arrangements provide a housing option with a greater sense of community at a price tag comparable to surrounding urban housing. UHC will see people live in separate dwellings with common areas. Intelligent design features can help build a cohesive yet organically forming community.

The architects spent a lot of time in the planning phase surveying the future occupiers about what they wanted in a co-housing arrangement. This means the design is driven by commonalities in what the occupiers wish for as opposed to a market-driven developer approach.

Jesse and his partner will live in the UHC, as will Jesse’s parents. In his view, Western society has become too atomised and he sees the UHC as a way to counter this.

“There’s a layer missing between the nuclear family and the big bad wide world, which is a nice coherent community around you.”