Anthony Burke explores evolving home ownership amid rising costs
for season 12 Grand Designs AustraliaArchitecture professor Anthony Burke sees a shift. In an age of skyrocketing house prices and a cost-of-living crisis, the definition of “great design” is being reimagined.
“We are more interested in the issues of today,” Burke says. “As I said, we are still being called Grand Designs Australia but it’s really about big ideas and ambitions. People are innovating the idea of homes with new energy in Australia, but they don’t necessarily have to be huge homes. “That’s what’s exciting because there’s so much grassroots innovation happening.”
Grand Designs Australia hosts in front of the ‘world ship’ home in Tasmania featured in episode one. Credit:
An example of out-of-the-box thinking comes in the first episode, which opens with a couple named Matt and Kate who move to Tasmania after being left out of Melbourne’s booming property market. Their beautiful structures are inspired by eco-friendly and upcycled materials. ‘earthship’ architectural style It was first developed in New Mexico in the 1970s.
“They took that model and tried to make it fit the contemporary Australian lifestyle,” says Burke. “We visited some of the previous ones. [of houses] They looked a bit like hobbit houses when we were filming. So we upgraded from that; It’s a finished product that looks like a house you’ll recognize. And of course all materials are recyclable and sustainable; so from a carbon perspective this is a great idea.”
The concept of home is something Burke, 54, is considering at a time when Australia is grappling with ongoing issues about how difficult it is for young people to break into the property market.
Grand Designs Australia welcomes Anthony Burke (left) with Kate and Matt to their world cruise home. Credit:
“I think about this a lot,” Burke says. “I have two adult children at home and I look after them, I’m going, I want you to have a good life. But I think a good life is probably not one detached house for my children, it’s another version of the house. The idea of the Australian house dream – this is a generation where it’s going to evolve into the next version of this. It just has to be that way.”
“70 per cent of people under 35 would never dream of buying their own home in Australia. That’s a statistic that really scares me because it means they don’t have a clear idea of what their options are, they just know what they can’t have. So I think we need to help this generation imagine what they can have and why that might be even better than a single detached house.”
The rapid increase in construction costs has also affected this season in ways Burke has not seen before. Grand Designs Australia The team typically estimates that two in 10 homes on display each season will sell out in terms of construction length, but that prediction has come to nothing.
