Grand Designs: New Zealand on ABC – When Tony Hodge arrived in New Zealand from England in the early 2000s – he just fell in love with the place.
He loved the lifestyle, thought it was a great place to bring up children and that Waiheke Island was the ‘most beautiful place on earth’.
Fast forward twenty years. He’s got a thriving business cladding houses in Auckland and he’s just bought a site in Rocky Bay on Waiheke Island.
But there’s one thing you’ll learn about Tony – he doesn’t necessarily want to take the easy route.
Which is why he’s decided to build a container house with a difference. The house will comprise of seven containers that will step down a steep incline into the bush with the containers angled away from each other in a vee shape to maximise view out to the Maretai and the Gulf.
If it’s a challenge that Tony wants, this project is going to reward him handsomely.
For starters, the site is vertiginous, difficult and buried in bush.
But what is even more concerning – neither Tony, his architect or his builder have any experience in building with containers. With the complications mounting up even before they’ve moved a container into place, will Tony come to rue the day that he wanted to build a house less ordinary?
Production credit: Based on the format “Grand Designs” devised by Talkback Thames, a Fremantle Media company.
Grand Designs: New Zealand – Thursday 4 May, 2023 at 8:30pm on ABC and ABC iview
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