Podcasts and audio

February 2023
Te Tiriti based co-governance and co-leadership has been embedded throughout the Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities National Science Challenge, and is successfully striving.

In this episode of Māpuna, Julian Wilcox speaks to the Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities National Science Challenge Tangata Whenua co-director Rihi Te Nana, Tangata Tiriti co-director Ruth Berry, Tangata Whenua co-chair Gena Te Kani-Moses and Tangata Tiriti co-chair Hope Simonsen, about the implementation of Te Tiriti based co-governance and co-leadership within the organisation and the journey they have walked to get the organisation to where it is today. Highlighting Māori community lead rangahau/research around housing in an effort to discover innovative outcomes to combat Aotearoa’s current housing crisis.

Photo: Toki Consultants

28 November 2022
What: Radio interview with Dale Husband for Waatea News

Maia Ratana, one of the three researchers who make up the rangatahi ahu for Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua – the flagship Māori housing research programme for the Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities (BBHTC) National Science Challenge was interviewed by Dale Husband for Waatea News.

Maia Ratana. Photo: Desna Whaanga-Schollum.

01 September 2021
What: RNZ The Panel with David Cormack and Ali Jones

Listen from 11:15 for a radio interview with researcher Dr Kay Saville-Smith on life for older renters

“We are living in a different world. So now, in the next 20 to 30 years, around 50% of those coming up to 65 years old, so on their 65th birthday, they are not going to be in owner occupation. They are going to be in rent and that presents a very different world.”

Photo: Vlada Karpovich, Pexels.

04 August 2021
What: RNZ The Panel

Listen from 10:00 for a radio interview with researcher Dr Kay Saville-Smith on life for older renters

Divorce, unexpected financial shocks, illness and sky-high house prices are leaving more older Kiwis renting in their retirement, with new research highlighting the challenges they face.

Photo: Sofia Shultz, Pexels.

2 July 2021
What: iSpinoff podcast: When the facts change with Bernard Hickey

Reporter Bernard Hickey was shocked at how shocked readers were at his loss of hope for the housing futures of young renters. Challenged to come up with new ideas unconstrained by political and financial limits, he went in search of hope elsewhere and dreamed up a big new idea of his own.

Bernard spoke to BBHTC’s co-leader for Affordable Housing for Generations, Dr Kay Saville-Smith, in a podcast. Kay said she was more hopeful than she’d been in decades of housing research and policy advice. She said policy makers, politicians and many in the sector had finally realised the scale of the issues and the need to change many things, through regulation, investment and policy changes. She was positive about the role of community housing providers and Kāinga Ora in building new homes, and also pointed to the potential for councils to use special rates to capture value uplift on land values when councils rezone areas and/or make the land more valuable by investing in infrastructure in and around it.

Photo: Louise Thomas.

2 June 2021
What: RNZ Nine To Noon

In 20 years, less than half of New Zealanders turning 65 will be homeowners. Of those who do own their own homes, many will retire with an outstanding mortgage.

For older people, available housing is too often unaffordable, unsuitable, and outside of their own communities, says Kay Saville-Smith, a BBHTC researcher.

Photo: Nick Karvounis, Unsplash.

30 July 2020
What: RNZ Nine to Noon

Why do some towns and cities grow and expand, with associated housing costs rising, while others languish with an oversupply of housing?

The economic research institute Motu has just released the fourth and final paper in a series, funded by the Building Better National Science Challenge, looking at the drivers of urban development, using census data for 132 towns and cities from 1976 to 2013. The data includes wages, rents, and population size in each place.

Senior Fellow at Motu and Building Better Principal Investigator Dr Arthur Grimes says there is a disconnect between firms and businesses that want to be based in larger cities, while many residents are attracted to smaller places with less congestion and the lower costs of living.

The cost of building new housing rises as population increases in a city. Photo: Chris Gray on Unsplash.

11 June 2020
What: RNZ Midday Report

The community housing sector is ready and waiting to construct nearly 3000 homes but desperately needs public cash to get building. Housing providers have submitted their projects to the government in a bid to get investment through the ‘shovel ready’ infrastructure project. RNZ housing reporter Eva Corlett talks with Dr Bev James.

8 May 2020
What: RNZ Midday Report

A new Research Bulletin has found that some essential workers are dealing with overcrowding at home. The Building Better Affordable Housing for Generations team has found that while essential workers are out serving the nation they’re putting their children, partners, or housemates at risk due to a lack of space. Team co-leader Dr Kay Saville-Smith spoke to Mani Dunlop on RNZ Midday Report about the findings.

Among essential worker households in rentals, 13 percent are crowded while a further 39 percent are not crowded but have no spare bedroom. Photo: Jonathan Borba from Pexels.

17 September 2019
What: Waatea News interview

The Hon Minister Nanaia Mahuta opened an event at Te Puea Memorial Marae, to celebrate the publication of research and educational resources based on the Manaaki Tangata Programme that has cared for homeless whanau since 2016. Waatea News radio discusses the research with Building Better researcher Rau Hoskins.

Some members of Building Better’s Te Manaaki o Te Marae research team at Te Puea Memorial Marae, from left Anaru Waa, Rau Hoskins, Professor Jenny Lee-Morgan, Rihi Te Nana, Professor Linda Smith, and Reuben Smiler.

5 September 2019
What: RNZ, Nights

Dr Rebecca Kiddle from Victoria University’s School of Architecture talks about Third Spaces and her Where do we dance? project for Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities.

Where do we dance? Photo: Rebecca Kiddle.

15 August 2019

Waatea News interviews Dr Amanda Yates about her research for Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities (BBHTC) Ko Nga wa Kainga hei Whakamahorahora National Science Challenge. New Zealand could be positioned to lead the world by developing a first-ever Mauri ora or “all-of-life” urban wellbeing data tool and framework, according to Amanda’s recently published research.

14 August 2019

This podcast focuses on a papakāinga (settlement of homes and associated environment) in Ahipara where the whānau of Rueben Taipari (Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāi Tuhoe) are building a papakāinga of muka-reinforced, cement-stabilised rammed earth homes – or whare uku – on Rueben’s ancestral whānau whenua. Dr Rebecca Kiddle talks to Rueben, his wife, Heeni Hoterene (Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāi Tahu) and their tamariki to understand the everyday realities of life on the papakāinga. Rebecca also talks to Dr Helen Potter, a researcher working alongside the whānau to tell their story in an upcoming book on Māori Housing being produced by the Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua research programme.

Rueben Taipari and whānau at their papakāinga, Ahipara. Photo: Desna Whaanga-Schollum.

14 August 2019

Building papakāinga in urban settings where land is expensive and in short supply, is the focus of today’s papakāinga. Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei have been grappling with exactly these questions on their Orākei whenua. Dr Rebecca Kiddle explores with Anahera Rawiri from Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, alongside researchers Rau Hoskins and Irene Kereama-Royal, the notion of a ‘vertical papakāinga’. They have been working to understand whether this apartment housing typology fits well with the ways that Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei have historical lived and how they want to live in the future. This innovative exploration builds on their existing papakāinga development that draws on medium density housing typologies to use land efficiently and house as many of their whanau as possible.

Concept design for vertical papakāinga. Image: Design Tribe Architects.

21 June 2019

This podcast sees Desna Whaanga Schollum and Becky Kiddle travel to Rauawaawa Kaumatua Charitable Trust to talk with the CEO, Rangimahora Reddy, and the Project Manager for Housing at Ngā Rau Tātangi Māori Housing Foundation, Yvonne Wilson, about their kaumatua housing developments and the research work they’ve been undertaking evaluating the housing programme. We also got to speak with three kaumatua, Patihana Takuira-Mita, Clark Takiari, and Daisy Haimona Upokomanu – all living in housing as part of these developments – to ask what they thought of their new whare.

Housing Kaumatua. Daisy Haimona Upokomanu outside her Hamilton whare. Photo: Desna Whaanga-Schollum.

21 June 2019

This podcast focuses on an exciting new research project that has been undertaken by Jacqueline Paul, Maia Ratana, and James Burghan on rangatahi housing experiences. Māori make up a relatively young and fast-growing share of the working-age population in Aotearoa/New Zealand. According to 2013 census data, the median age of the Māori population was 23.4 years, compared with 38.0 years for New Zealanders in general. There were 127,600 Māori aged 15-24 years in the 2013 census. Māori aged 15-24 made up 19 per cent of the Māori population. The decisions made today about our Māori housing futures will have particular impact on the generations to come. Yet how are rangatahi Māori adding their voices to current housing debates? We talk to the three researchers about their mahi, which focused around three wānanga in Kaikohe, Auckland, and Dunedin. Their findings focus on both the experiences and aspirations of rangatahi Māori with respect to housing alongside reflections on appropriate methods for undertaking research with rangatahi.

14 December 2018
What: RNZ, Nine to Noon

Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua Principal Investigator Jenny Lee-Morgan talks on air about her team’s research and why the work being done at Te Puea Memorial Marae is successful at getting people off the streets for good.

Te Puea manaakitanga tangata kaimahi – core team led by Hurimoana Dennis. Photo: The Treehouse Creative.

23 November 2018
What: RNZ, Morning Report, with Conan Young reporting

While plans are being made for the future of Christchurch’s red zone, one researcher is keen to ensure the area’s past is not forgotten. Radio New Zealand Morning Report interview with Canterbury University’s Donald Matheson. Donald is a researcher in Building Better’s contestable research project called Understanding Place, and has developed an app that enables people to upload videos of themselves talking about parts of the red zone that are special to them.

20 November 2018
What: RNZ, Nine to Noon, with Kathryn Ryan

New research reveals what makes our towns and cities good places to live and do business – but we can’t always have both. Kathryn Ryan talks to Building Better’s Principal Investigator on the Supporting success in regional settlements team, Arthur Grimes.

1 October 2018
What: RNZ, Lately with Karyn Hay, interview with Dr Kay Saville-Smith

Dr Kay Saville-Smith discusses the burgeoning renters sector, predicting that in 20 years’ time more than half of those over 65 will be renting – and even now many are turning to flatting.

20 July 2018
What: Podcast from Indigenous Urbanism – Episode 5

Podcast from Indigenous Urbanism: Jade Kake interviews Building Better Homes, Towns & Cities Kāinga Tahi, Kāinga Rua researcher, Rau Hoskins. “On this episode of Indigenous Urbanism, we travel to Tāmaki Makaurau, our largest city, to look at how Māori designers are working alongside mana whenua to re-shape the city to better reflect their unique identity and culture and to create a distinctive sense of place that benefits us all.”

05 July 2018
What: Nine to Noon Radio NZ interview with Ella Henry

Smaller housing developers are being locked out by bureaucracy costs, and experts say the government must connect people with expertise so affordable housing, particularly for Māori, can be built. Listen to Building Better researcher Ella Henry from the Shaping Places: Future Neighbourhoods team talking Māori affordable housing this week on Radio New Zealand’s Nine to Noon programme:

21 March 2018
What: NBR Radio interview with Prof. Laurence Murphy

Professor Laurence Murphy says relying on simply building more houses is not an effective pathway to generating affordable housing as the market is very good at producing market prices. He discusses the challenges of Special Housing Areas with Grant Walker on NBR Radio.

14 December 2017
What: Nine to Noon Radio NZ interview with Dr Kay Saville-Smith

Dr Kay Saville- Smith was interviewed on Radio New Zealand’s Nine to Noon programme about New Zealand’s hidden homes :