Motueka to host expert in affordable housing design

October 10th, 2014
[by David Armstrong]

An expert in affordable house design will speak at a public meeting next Thursday about some of the urban planning and design work he has been involved in.

Chris Moller is a Wellington-based "architect/urbanist" who is visiting Golden Bay and Tasman as a guest of TDC Councillor Martine Bouillir and Motueka Community Board chairman Paul Hawkes, to offer ideas on solutions to New Zealand's affordable housing crisis.

His international architecture business CMA+U has undertaken major urban design projects around the world and is working on innovative, inexpensive pre-fabricated house designs called Click-Raft. View some of the projects here.

The lack of affordable housing in Motueka has for many years been seen as a major problem for this relatively low-income community. Several meetings have been held in recent years to search for ways of breaking through cost barriers associated with land availability and development costs (see our earlier story).

Chris has 25 years of international experience across the fields of architecture and urban design, including numerous international competition wins.

In Takaka and Motueka he will talk about his "experiences in different places regarding challenges around affordable, elderly and social housing needs, and the critical importance of a wider spatial vision and urban development strategy to help achieve these ambitions".

"Another key issue worth raising is how housing can be understood as a verb, not simply a noun. In other words as something you do; and not in isolation, but rather as part of a broad spectrum of resources such as adjacency to facilities, public services, shops, transport options, recreation and so on. These will all be crucial to the quality and value of the housing to be provided."

The meeting will be held at the TDC meeting room, Hickmott Place, on October 16th starting at 6.30pm. Chris will also be available to talk informally with any interested people from 3pm to 5pm the same day at the Sprig & Fern.

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