Grey roofs and dreary paint jobs are sucking the joy out of New Zealand’s suburbs, says renowned Kiwi architect Roger Walker.
"I can’t understand why colour is gradually disappearing from our lives," the New Zealand Order of Merit recipient said this morning on TVNZ1’s Breakfast. "Maybe it’s symptomatic of some deeper malaise, and that’s what concerns me."
Mr Walker, who has earned a reputation for his against-the-grain architectural designs dating back to the 1960s, fondly remembered the colourful roofs in Hamilton when he was a child. They spoke to the individuality he has always associated with "the Kiwi way of life", he said.
"So this creeping uniformity to me is a worry because it speaks of a sort of rising conservatism," he explained.
"I don’t know if it is because our lives are so complicated with filling in forms and health and safety and all the other issues – we’re perhaps getting a little too gloomy."
He has put his money where his mouth is, painting his own home in the Wellington suburb of Thorndon pink and green – a mix so bright that it has caused some consternation among the local historical society and prompted his own son to ask: "Which particular asylum came up with this colour scheme?"
But Mr Walker has the résumé to back up his wild choices. In 2016, he earned the New Zealand Institute of Architects’ highest honour.
He has used the platform to urge fellow New Zealanders not to be afraid of a little more colour – advice that he admits contradicts real estate agents who say his method makes it more difficult to sell a house quickly.
"It’s just a thin layer of colour" that can always be changed before putting a house on the market, he countered.
Another underlying issue is the way homes in New Zealand have gone in recent decades from individually designed to mass produced, "depressing" neighbourhoods that home buyers have no input in constructing.
"There's too many of them that are clones of other houses, and I just think we need to express our individuality," he said. And paint is the easiest way to do so, he argued.
"Supermarkets always put their fresh fruit and veggies at the entrance…which gets people in a good mood, and that lifts their spending power when they go through the rest of the store,” he explained.
"Colour is a joyful thing. Colour actually works."
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