Architect Athfield

I suppose just the things that I enjoy doing. I suppose being with people, some sort of physical contact, drinking, laughing . . . that's when you feel that it'd be quite nice to capture those moments again.

– Ian Athfield, on what he'd like included a film about him, in part one

His first bricks started to arrive and he got 15 truckloads of bricks but unfortunately we didn't check them before they left the site. First time I saw them was about the eighth truckload coming up Onslow Road here, and they were all in one lump... He spent the next 18 months to two years breaking these bricks apart.

– Ian Athfield, on a job that didn't quite go according to plan, in part six

And so, as a result of frustrations at home and the winning of a competition, Athfield finds himself in Manila. Perhaps here at least, ideas will be realised.

– Narrator Sam Neill in part five

An appealing, offbeat character with scraggly long hair and bermudas, Athfield is presented as an imaginative architect critical of orthodox Kiwi design and planning (like the standardised suburban sprawl of state-house Porirua), a provocateur whose work provokes aggressive reactions... 

– Documentary expert Russell Campbell writes about this film (see 'Background' tab)

I think if you build something different in an existing neighbourhood or established neighbourhood, you invite reactions. And that reaction can vary from a mild criticism to praise to violent aggression, and I think in this house we’ve had everything  . . . We've even had someone fire at the tower, and we've got a couple of bullet holes through it.

– Architect Ian Athfield discusses reactions to his designs, in part four

Poverty, population pressures, shortage of land, few economic opportunities: these things drive the poor from the country to the city.

– Narrator Sam Neil describes Manila, at the start of this documentary