Talking grand designs with Tom Webster

Tom Webster’s fascination with architecture started at a young age, and now he shares it with millions of others, fronting TVNZ’s Grand Designs New Zealand series. Metropol Editor Lynda Papesch caught up with him to see what captures his imagination.

Home is where the heart is, so they say, and Tom’s heart is inextricably linked with architectural design. He lives it, breathes it, and is surrounded by it, at home, at work, and even relaxing.

Known for his enthusiasm showcasing the grand designs of Kiwi homes to New Zealand viewers, Tom’s awareness of architecture started early. “My dad was an architect, now retired. As any child of architects will tell you, it’s a profession that often seeps into family life well beyond the working week,” he says.

Early memories include Saturday morning visits to his father’s office. “Those were the days of proper drawing boards, drafting pens, blueprints, and ammonia tank copiers,” he recalls.
“The things that captured my imagination most, apart from the smell of ammonia, were the architectural models, full of tiny scale people, cars, trees. As a kid these might have seemed like toys to me, yet those models also represented the architect’s ability to shape and create worlds. To have a job where you can have a real and lasting effect on the built environment, the places we live, work, socialise, care for each other and enjoy ourselves, is a mighty privilege…to be used carefully!”

These days, Tom meets people all around New Zealand who are challenging architecture, geography, sustainability, technology, and even standard building practices to create innovative, cutting edge homes. He has been presenting Grand Designs New Zealand since 2022, and also runs an Auckland-based architectural practice with his wife Anna, focusing on bespoke residential projects.

At heart he admits to not necessarily being a classicist or a modernist, instead referring to himself as a building enthusiast. “I’m fascinated with all eras of architectural design, although I do struggle somewhat with appreciating post-modernist architecture; give me time.”

Buildings, he says, as well as fulfilling pragmatic needs, are, at their best, brilliant representations of society, culture, philosophical values, artistic ideals. “If I had to pin a favourite area of architecture it would be adaptive re-use: the introduction of contemporary architecture and functionality within an historic building setting. This may seem difficult here in New Zealand compared with countries with longer histories of building, however preserving and recycling buildings of any age is important, not just from a sustainable perspective. We should draw from their architectural histories whilst looking to innovate and re-invent.”

Home for Tom, Anna and their children is a 1962 mid-century classic. “Or at least it has ambitions of being a classic,” he laughs. “It’s a bit tired and painted a very sensible green colour at the moment, definitely not in its swinging-60s prime.”

The house is long and low, with big drafty single-glazed sliding doors. “It’s a modest Kiwi version of a Californian home. In fact, it would much better suit a Californian climate. Lacking proper insulation, the house is often cold, and that’s in its very temperate Auckland location, I can’t imagine a Canterbury winter in it,” Tom shudders. Don’t worry, team Webster plans to renovate and enhance its mid-century feel, and make it a touch warmer too.
Getting back to other people’s home plans, Tom says that people often assume that there is a particular type of building that qualifies as a “Grand Designs” house. “The truth is, the programme exists to explore the depth and breadth of domestic architecture. The scale of a house is much less important to me than the ideas behind it; the more varied a collection of house stories that we can cover each season, the better.”

As such, homes of a more compact nature and of modular construction definitely have a place in the world of Grand Designs New Zealand, as long as they are unique and interesting, he says. “You might just see something of that nature on your TV screens very soon.”

Heading into the series ninth season, Tom was recently made a “Lexus Ambassador” when the marque signed on as sponsor of the Grand Designs series. Coincidentally, he is also a qualified car designer, so the connection fits him like a glove, he admits.

“I’m looking forward to bringing the next collection of amazing design projects to the screen, and also working with Lexus and its community activities such as the Lexus Design Award, which are currently underway.” The electric Lexus RZ 450e, and other vehicles in the marque’s luxury lineup, will feature in the next series as Tom travels around the country to visit the Grand Designs projects, so tune in.