(DYNAMIC THEME MUSIC) Welcome to Dream Catchers, a series about New Zealanders living in the United Kingdom. I'm Hilary Timmins. This is a series that will enthral and inspire us as we meet some of those Kiwis living their dreams and taking a little piece of New Zealand to the rest of the world. Captions by June Yeow. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2018 There's something quintessentially English about a folly. This one was built in 1750 and was once owned by celebrated interior designer David Hicks. It's now the country retreat of London-based New Zealander Veere Grenney. Now a world renowned interior designer himself, Veere's interiors frequently graze the covers and pages of international luxury lifestyle magazines. And he is regarded as one of the United Kingdom's leading designers, with an A-list clientele on both sides of the Atlantic. I always loved houses, loved decoration, loved lifestyle, I think. And it's difficult to know which one I love most, but I do remember at the age of, sort of, 13, 14, 15, 16 on a Saturday on my bike always going round Auckland houses that were built and the big gardens that were being subdivided, going to look around them when they were building sites, thinking how I'd furnish them or decorate them. It was just probably within me that I just loved beautiful houses or decoration. But I think it was very difficult in those days to be definitive about which aspect you really liked. When I was growing up in New Zealand, David Hicks was my hero, and I used to read all the magazines about him. And I could remember when I was about 16 or something, seeing a picture of the house he had in England, which was his weekend house, which was this little Palladian folly in the countryside. A folly is a whimsical structure, normally, with very little practical purpose, so this was a little unusual. Some years later, Veere would get the opportunity to purchase the property, set in the Suffolk countryside and has since put his own stamp on it. If I ever need anything restorative or to get my life in balance, I need to go to the temple. It's called 'the temple of the four seasons'. It's a passion. It's a very beautiful, small house, and it's always been two or three days a week in my life. Both the folly and Veer's central London home are a testament to his craft. But arriving in London in the '70s ` it would take tenacity and perseverance to break into the world of interiors, which in those days was a very closed and very expensive shop. I had no money. So I thought, well, the best way of earning money would be to work in restaurants like all my New Zealand friends did. So I started working in restaurants. And with the money I earnt, which was very good money in those days, I then started dealing in antique furniture and junk or whatever I could afford to buy. To satisfy the desire or to just begin my passion, I used to have a stall in Portobello, and then there was a great market in King's Road called Antiquarius, and I had a stall there too. So I used to work at night in restaurants, and then I used to deal in the day. The stalls became a shop, and it was here that Veere's keen buyer's eye and creative talent were spotted by the famous interior designer Mary Fox Linton, who, at the time, in a sweet twist of fate, was in partnership with David Hicks. Mary offered Veere a job. From there, he would go on to join Colefax & Fowler as a director, and in 1996, he formed Veere Grenney Associates. I think always the most important thing is just to get your foot in the door. And whenever young people today say to me, 'If you wanna be an interior designer, what do you do?' Well, of course you can go to as many schools as you like or to do as many courses as you like, all of which are great. The very best way is to work for someone, because it's still an apprenticeship career. I knew I wanted to work in this world of beauty, decoration, antiques, art, beautiful houses. I knew I wanted to work in the world. But the challenge often, was to define how you want to do it or exactly what aspect of it. And I discovered probably 20 years ago, 25 years ago, the best thing for me was being the conductor of the orchestra to actually understand all aspects of it, have great knowledge of all aspects of it, been trained in all aspects of it, and therefore putting all the bits together. To be very good at my job, it's not just the inside of the house; it's the whole house itself and the way you live in it. The great thing about doing what I do is listening and interpreting a client's brief. Brief is everything. I think one of the great things in New Zealand as well ` New Zealanders don't know the 'no' word very much. They're very good at saying yes. And if I think of my career, I've always said yes. If someone says, 'Can you do this?' I always say, 'Yes.' Then I think about how I'm going to do it. That can-do thing about New Zealanders, and there's no preconceived ideas about what we can do and what we can't do. So I can almost think of myself as quite arrogant when I was quite young about presuming I could do what I do. But I never thought about that. I just went ahead and did it. And I think that's a huge part of the whole New Zealand ethos. New Zealander Mandii Pope is a rare thing ` a full-time artist based in London. Her creations are popping up all over the land, including former palace of Henry VIII, Hampton Court. Hampton Court and its 750 acres of parkland was once the exclusive playground of royalty. Opened to the public by Queen Victoria, it's now a destination for thousands of visitors every week. And the odd gnome. Mandii's work is part of a Wild in Art project called Gnomes Unearthed and is one of 15 gnomes to be placed around the grounds today. There's beautiful gardens in Hampton Court Palace, and each one has a huge amount of history. And so the historians from Hampton Court Palace have assigned an artist with a famous writer, and some have worked with community groups to tell the stories of the gardens, or the history of the gardens, on to each gnome. Planted in the eastern gardens, Mandii's author was Michael Rosen, the author of the celebrated children's book We're Going on a Bear Hunt. From his inspiration of text, my drawing... is basically along the themes of when they opened up the train lines ` I think it was 1883 ` then the Londoners came down to Hampton Court Palace, cos prior to that, Hampton Court Palace was a private garden. And then when that opened up, the gent and foundry were horrified by all the Londoners that would come in their Sunday best. Some would skinny-dip in the ponds and` Umbriel was its name, which was like an elvin-type sprite. Mandii has huge and varied portfolio of work, from public art sculptures to corporate officers in London. Sometimes I'm more client-focused. With commercial art work, I'm working to a brief. And then others are emotive, and then others are memories. So it just` It depends, really, cos my style is quite varied. There are about eight different styles that I'm capable of creating, so it depends what it is and who it's for, really. I'm a bit of a sponge to my environment. I painted a series of Venetian oil landscapes from a trip out to Venice for a carnival. There was a corporate commission which was in the style of spin paintings. I'm working on a series at the moment that I'll have in exhibition in the future which is New Zealand art works. I need a challenge, so if I was to do one style all the time, I'd become quite complacent. So it's nice to bounce between five different things at the same time. So I could have a detailed cityscape, but then half an hour later, I'll move to a spin painting, which is a bit more explosive. And I find if I'm jumping back and forth from one to the other, I'm fresh for each one, as opposed to concentrating on one thing. Mandii studied graphic design, painting and film at Manukau Institute of Technology and worked as a storyboard artist for television commercials before moving to the United Kingdom in 2004. It is difficult to establish yourself as an artist in London because there are so many other people just like you here. I had a 10-year plan to just slowly build up a portfolio network. It takes time to do all of that anyway. So it's not easy. But just one foot in front of the other, a little bit every day. My family are quite business-orientated, so my dad's always said to me, 'I'll send you to art school, but you need to make sure that you work in a corporate environment, 'you understand sales, you understand accounts, you understand management. 'You understand all the skills that you need to be to run your own business 'if you are going to be an artist.' A former nominee for the UK New Zealander of the Year, part of Mandii's plan was to help the community. And through her art, she has raised more than NZ$200,000 for charity. There is also the work she does with Wild in Art ` the UK's leading producer of mass participation public art. So they will create a base sculpture, say 50 of them. And then various artists will get a shape that they either pain or transform and build. So currently, I've just four` I've just finished one 7ft by 5ft rhino sculpture that I transformed into a triceratops. So that was a huge, complex build. Had a tail, he's got a head, he's had extra toes, extra horns. Had to build scales for him, so that's taken months. So there's been all sorts of shapes from foot benches, which are in London, to telephone boxes. There are rhinos currently in Devon for Paignton Zoo, there's pigs in Ipswich, there are gnomes in Hampton Court Palace. Mandii's 10-year plan is now into its next decade. So what are her plans for the future? Yeah, still do the same thing I'm already doing, but just... I might allow myself to have a day off. Occasionally. I absolutely love what I do. Absolutely. I couldn't imagine doing anything else. Next up ` we meet the award-winning London architect from the tiny little island of Motiti. * (UPBEAT MUSIC) Formerly a working-class suburb in East London, Shoreditch has become synonymous with hipsterfication ` arty, multicultural and vibrant. With its vintage shops, ramshackle bars and gritty urban edge, it has become and appealing and popular base for tech and creative industries and those who work in them, making it the perfect environment for New Zealander Anthony Hoete. Founder of What Architecture and What Developments, this unconventional architect's career has taken him around the globe, working in Italy and the Netherlands before settling in the United Kingdom, where he has been the recipient of the Royal Institute of British Architects Award, a Civic Trust Award, the Prime Minister's Award, and one of his buildings has even made it into the Guinness Book of records ` building a school out of Lego bricks. So I was looking for a device which would get the children involved in the design process, and that's not drawing. If you tried to go to a workshop with adults and children and you, the architect, draw, you can draw ambidextrous, left, right, and you're basically just fighting everyone because they've just seen you draw too good. So we gave up on drawing. What I realised was Lego bricks. If we went to a workshop with children in this area of Hillingdon ` we could then get them involved in the design process by using Lego bricks. And then, of course, after that, the bigger question ` why are we designing with Lego? Why don't we try to build the project? We tested, uh, fire. We learnt that they're inflammable, we learnt about their degradation under ultraviolet light, and then convinced the BRE, which is the Building Research Establishment certification to use it as a building product, and then basically built it. The building picked up the Guinness Book of Record for the most number of Lego bricks used in a permanent building. What Architecture would also become involved in the build of the project, something that would stand him in good stead when in 2008, the financial crash hit. The struggles of the 2008 recession meant we had to reconfigure, we had to play architecture under a new set of rules ` ones which meant setting up a development company. And the idea was to find sites below the scale or radar of the larger developments and to acquire them, therefore become our own clients, and develop them ourselves. Their first project was the former Shoreditch tube station, just off Brick Lane, now successful cafe and entertainment venue. And I guess when you're in control now of the rules, you can do design aspirations. So, one, you can actually be financially better off, but also do things you want to do. And that's the, I guess, the balance. So finally today we're sitting in this triangle between design, development and construction. Anthony comes from tiny Motiti Island. With a population of just 27, the Island is situated off the Bay of Plenty. Educated in Kawerau, he studied architecture and civil engineering at Auckland University. And when doing his masters in London, the island would once again become a significant focus in his life. As his graduation project, Anthony would design a house for his father, which he would later build. Quite crazy to leave London with this population of 10 million and go back to the island for effectively two years and build this house. But it was a labour of love. And it was a way also of reconnecting to my family, which I hadn't seen for five years ` connecting with my father, my uncle, my auntie, and it was a very very tight bond. And so between the family, we just built his house. Another house, Hinemihi, holds a significant place in Anthony's life. And the chair of Te Mari O Hinemihi, which is the advisory panel working with Tuhourangi in the development of Hinemihi Maori meeting house shifted from New Zealand in 1886, brought over by Governor Onslow to Clandon. Quite funny too, that when they brought her over ` obviously back in the day there weren't any instructions as to how to put a Maori meeting house together on an estate, so she got brought over chopped up, so now she's about two-thirds of the size she was in Te Wairoa in New Zealand. Nonetheless, she provides a kind of connection point and also the sense of iwi I have over here. So now in London I belong to Ngati Ranana, which is the tribe of London, and that's a much more progressive Maori diaspora. My mother's English, but my father's Maori. But I think the biggest thing here is not defined by gene but as a relationship to whakapapa and identity. And I think that's been really great. I guess I took from New Zealand that sort of openness for embrace and... I guess an appreciation for difference, not necessarily an understanding, but certainly an enjoyment of difference ` so things which are different, for me, are great and add value. An approach that Anthony has taken from life and incorporated into his work. So to innovate, you have to add difference. Attitude is everything. If you have the wrong attitude, it doesn't matter how talented and how competent you are, but attitude is everything. So I guess what the first half of the game of architecture taught me was that we have to play it differently Architecture is one of the oldest professions where actually I like to think I'm entering the second half of the game now. So after middle age comes the really productive end. And architects don't retire. * Anthony Paul is an award-winning landscape New Zealand designer based at the Hannah Peschar Sculpture Garden, a unique and magical environment in Surrey. Anthony has designed gardens all over the world, including New Zealand. He's created gardens for Sirs Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. His work has been recognised with many British and international awards. And his sculpture garden, with his wife, Hannah Peschar, is regarded as one of the world's finest. The garden is in synergy with the art. My wife, very many years ago ` 30 years ago ` had an idea to put a sculpture park here. Art in a gallery can be a little bit sterile. It can be lost. The beauty of it ` sometimes you need to stand back and see art from a distance. I love simplicity. My gardens are about simplicity, about keeping a very small palette of plants. And I love art. It says very little but says so much. In other words, the simplicity of the piece is about the interpretation. And, you know, one man's plant is another man's weeds, as is one man's piece of art can be another man's passion. It was a lot of weeds but one man's passion that attracted Anthony to the 10 acres in Surrey in the first place when he and his wife, Hannah, were looking for a green space to live outside London and somewhere Anthony could expand his gardening skills. It was an overgrown wild space, and nobody wanted it. Been on the market for a long time, but no one could see the potential. I drove down the drive and immediately could see what was needed and crashed through the garden to find a giant plant, and I said, 'Look, I'm buying the house to have this plant,' because this plant today is still almost the signature plant of the garden. It's called Gunnera manicata. The plant is a magnificent structural plant. It actually comes, would you believe, from South America. I love gardens that are not too ordinary, that are more uncapped, that have a feeling of excitement and exploration, that you don't know what's around the next corner. So you have to explore the garden rather than see it as a series of rooms, like many English gardens are. Growing up in Auckland, Anthony's love affair with nature began on a visit to Waipoua Forest when he sighted another giant that changed his life ` the famous kauri tree over 1000 years old ` Tane Mahuta. My father took me to that forest when I was 11 years old. And from then on, I realised that there was something more in the world than just cars and people. There was something more beautiful. And the New Zealand bush had a huge influence in my life. And it still does today. I've learnt so much on the bush from how plant associations work, how nature does its own gardening. Arriving in London in the '70s, Anthony worked in fashion initially before setting up his own business looking after some of London's most famous garden squares. I've been lucky to meet people. It's being at the right place at the right time and having introductions to people. I think the first big break I ever had was when I met up with Andrew Lloyd Webber. And he gave me some really great commissions to do some projects for him. I also did a lot of projects for Cameron Mackintosh. I love simple geometry. Simple geometry is the key to good design. You don't need fussy curves, or you don't need fussy ideas. You just do one good idea, one good, simple architecture design is all you need. And my gardens are bold, they're simple, but the appeal to people who have a sense of clear artistic design. Everything in life is about relationships. And once you understand your client's needs and you understand what makes them tick and how the garden can interact with their lifestyle, then you can form a bond. And forming that bond is the most important thing. And today I'm still working for clients that I worked for 25, 30 years ago. (BELLS RING) Passion's the most important thing. Without passion, you're nothing. You've got to live or even love what you do. You know, it's part of your life, you know. Gardening isn't a profession. It's a complete commitment. (UPLIFTING MUSIC) Captions by June Yeow. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2018