048per_THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK? AUCKLAND MORE EXPENSIVE THAN LONDON

Given London property prices, many have left this city for another country (Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels… ). Tourism NZ’s advertising cry of the 1980s was: “don’t leave home until you have seen the country”. In 2017 the real estate picture has changed so dramatically that this now means, for many NZ ex-pats, you can no longer afford to call that country your home. According to NewsHub:(File) “It’s official – New Zealand has the most unaffordable housing in the world, according to The Economist.  
“Across five different measures, New Zealand has come out on top of three of the five measures for the most expensive global housing market. New Zealand has had the highest rise in house prices, costs the most against the average person’s income and now has the biggest difference between house prices and renting prices. In the latest edition of The Economist, figures show that in the past 46 years New Zealand’s house prices have risen by more than 8 percent on average a year. It’s a trend repeated among other first world countries, including the United Kingdom, which had a 7.65 percent average rise annually over the same timeframe, and Australia, where house prices rose more than 6.4 percent a year on average. According to The Economist, those numbers have remained solid in the past seven years with New Zealand’s numbers showing a 7.9 percent consistent increase per year since 2009. The Economist puts this trend down to “a growing horde of rich foreigners” coming to New Zealand because they see it as a “safe haven”. “In 2016 overseas investors bought just 3 percent of all properties. But their purchases were concentrated at the expensive end of the market, which is growing fast: sales involving homes worth more than NZ$1m increased by 21 percent.” The findings don’t get any better for New Zealanders, showing that in the last 10 years, the average price against a person’s income has risen dramatically. The numbers are backed up by the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey released in January showing Auckland is ranked the forth least-affordable housing market in the world. The average house price in Auckland is now more than £500K.”
 

265cos_PECKHAM RAIN SHOWER

#SpendItLikePeckham You are inside your house caught in the rain shower provided by Magda’s sliding bathroom window. Rain Shower

265cos_WHITE PICKET FENCE AS CROP CIRCLE

#SpendItLikePeckham is the hashtag for a project where the architect spending, is to put her money money where her, blablablarchitecture, mouth is. So #SpendItLikePeckham leads the architect-developer to aspire to design their own brand of spatial economics. Case in point: how to design something of interest yet in accordance with Approved Document K: Protection From Falling. The White Picket Fence Balustrade? The History of My White Picket Fence begins with Dennis Hopper’s House in Santa Monica… TBC Screen Shot 2017-04-05 at 23.53.01dennis_hopper_house_venice_01WHITE PICKETWHITE PICKET 3D  

265cos_LEANING WINDOWS

IMG_8180The Peckham Project has three leading facades: two leaning in at 5 and 30 degrees, one leaning out at 20 degrees. This presents a technical issue for the window fabricators (air and water egress according to Velfac…) which lead us to the renovation of the John Hancock Centres’s observation deck which leans out 30 degrees to afford the viewer a vertiginous outlook of Chicago from 450m above ground level. In the video, the guy in the white shirt looks less enthralled… IMG_8169IMG_8170