Design - Craft - Build: The journey of the self-built

Tim Brodrick Modos The Concept — The concept.

To carry out the act of self-building, the home becomes a simple envelope with sensitively detailed and personal moments. Learning through making anchors this thesis in humanity, for a home is about memories and moments as much as the materials from which it is made.

As such, this becomes a thesis centred around reexploring the relationships between architecture, family, and place. Creating affordable and sustainable architecture that becomes deeply personal to the individual and site it rests on.

Tim Brodrick Modos Dad — A helping hand from Dad.

Residing in the small town of Whangamata, New Zealand, is my family home and the location of this project. The 616 square metre site has been my family’s home over the past 25 years. Of all the changes my family has been through this plot of land has been our constant. This thesis presented the opportunity to put my own mark on the site with the addition of a 16 square metre self-built dwelling on wheels.

The dwelling became a vessel for finding myself through a built form. Having the opportunity to construct something deeply personal to myself and the site it sits on. The dwelling itself does not try to be something it is not, in its most refined form, it is an honest and humble home that illustrates the joy of making.

Tim Brodrick Modos Frames Up — Skeleton of the dwelling.

Tim Brodrick Modos Left Aligned — Polycarbonate window installation.

Tim Brodrick Modos Morning Light — morning sun dancing across the walls

From the boy wrapped up in his imaginary world constructing treehouses, to the naïve student embarking on a journey that would change his life. I will be forever grateful to all those that helped along the way.