It takes an artist’s eye to see achoreographed dance in the actof pouring concrete. Hard hatsand steel caps, flexi-pipes andformwork are the unremarkableitems that inspired Teresa HR

Lane’s imagination when she took onthe role of project manager on the buildof her new family home in FreemansBay. Power and vulnerability were thebigger themes explored in a seriesof works this recent Elam graduateentitled The Might of Meekness.

“There I was sitting in the middleof this madness on a building sitewaiting for ‘the pour’. There werepeople hanging off structures, screwingand shovelling, pushing and shoving.I started taking photos not knowing

where it would lead me.”A sell-out exhibition of drawn and

painted works on plywood was theend result of these observations — abonus outcome of the design-and-buildprocess. Not many homeowners declare,at the end of a project, as Lane does:“That was great! When do we do thenext one?”

When Lane and her husband, anengineer, took the step to sell theirdouble-brick Mt Eden villa and build,it was an impulsive decision. “We sawthis ridiculously steep site tucked downa driveway and thought ‘why not?’”Her hubby turned out to be a master ofunderstatement when he speculated:“That’s my area of expertise — howhard can it be?” One 50m retaining wall

and 100 truck-loads of fill, manoeuvringperilously through the cart-wide backstreets of this city-fringe suburb, wasthe first measure. Dealing with councilrequirements in a heritage area withResidential 1 zoning was the second.

The couple had vivid experience ofthe cold, draughty villa they had leftbehind and wanted somewhere warmand low-maintenance with a separatewing for their two daughters (aged 13and 11) and a studio space for Lane topursue her art. They liked the solidityof concrete and its raw beauty. “Wewanted a house that honestly reflectedthe materials it was made of.”

They were also eager to explore thechallenge and the perceived cost-effectiveness of in-situ formwork, rather

than using tilt-slab construction. TimDorrington of DAA Architects wascommissioned for a scheme that beganas a simple plan: two structures linkedby a double-height atrium and a bridgethat floats through the space to connectthem.

Dorrington devised a brutalistcomposition of concrete, steel and glassthat nevertheless gives an architecturalhandshake to its colonial neighbours.Horizontal texture on the precast wallsechoes the linearity of weatherboardswhile the roof, styled as a Dutchgable and clad in steel, is conceivedas habitable “attic” space that makesreference to the dormers of Victorianvillas.

Though the palette is strong and

AT HOME

When artist Teresa HR Lane was catapulted into a world inhabited mainly by male builders,she was surprised to find herself enchanted, writes Claire McCall

THE SITE DECONSTRUCTED

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industrial, whitened-ply ceilings and acedar-wrapped insertion that houses thegarage but curves into the living roomlends softness and give. In the kitchen,a wall of cabinetry in black-stainedparticle board flows around a powderroom and coat cupboard, while loweredceilings bring an intimate counterpointto the volume of the atrium.

“We have no street frontage and notone of our neighbours objected to thedesign,” recalls Lane.

Getting the plan through councilwas a different story. Lane, who wasin her final year as a mature studentat Elam, had to switch focus betweenthe ethereal, conceptual nature ofher learning, to the red-tape realityof consent. Thoughts of a “fanciful lifeof study” were abandoned to attendhearings and make the compromisesthat allowed them to continue with theirplan. “From an artist’s perspective, itmade me realise the subjective natureof aesthetic,” says Lane. “There’s noright and wrong. It’s all about what’sin favour by the people in power at thetime.”

Just as Lane was nearing the endof her four-year degree, her husbandgave her the news that he was too busyto oversee the physical build — she’dhave to take on that role, too. So sheimmersed herself body and soul intoa world inhabited mainly by men. Intandem with builder Hayden Anderson,she worked with the team, shaping thehome like a brigade of potters. She’snever looked back. Her eyes light upas she explains the make-up of thematerial that was used: a sandwich ofinsulation, woven steel and concrete.“You pour the concrete into a mouldso, in fact, you have to map out how tobuild the reverse of the house.”

The anxiety, excitement and energyof the day of the pour — this “concretefever” that rises from the knowledgethat things can go really well or, shouldone form blow, rather badly — is stillfreshly etched in her mind.

Sitting in her studio, Lane runs herhands over the patina of the interiorwalls. Their smooth, shiny imperfectionis in contrast to the roughcast shutterednature of the exterior. Such textural

juxtaposition is reflective of the process:that dirty, physicality of building thatcan also have its quieter, delicatemoments.

Unexpectedly, in overseeing the job,Lane found her muse — indeed, asquad of them. Using the photographsshe’d taken on site, she then etchedtheir forms in ink, pencil or digitally.Then she prepared to transfer these tocanvas. Since her budget was stretched,her foundation, instead, became piecesof plywood, donated by the buildingsupply store where the couple had theiraccount. “They were ex-packagingmaterial, and all scuffed and bruised.”

Lane liked the link this had withconstruction and that she was puttingwaste to good use. So she sanded thepieces — a “cathartic, repetitive processof getting to know each piece” — thenwhitewashed them so the swirls of thegrain became barely perceptible.

Lane’s art expresses not only thebrute force of the co-ordinated theatreof a concrete pour but other aspectsof the personalities she grew to knowand love. There are pensive momentswhere the man the crew dubbed “theconcrete pirate” stands in his eye patch,dungarees and gumboots, and whileothers stare thoughtfully into the holethat was to become the footings fora concrete spiral staircase. There’splayfulness, such as the painting wheretwo builders tiptoe across a pond ofconcrete, delicately transporting theproject manager’s handbag to safety.

Now settled into her home and hertheme, Lane has been asked for moreworks of a similar sort for an exhibitionat the Milford Galleries in Dunedin. Thiswill take the form of larger pieces thatmarry painting and drawing. In inkand acrylic, and presented on plywoodwith mitred edges, her tentative titleis: Men at Work. “The archetypal ideaof builders is of them standing aroundsmoking a fag, but there’s so muchmore to it than that. These paintingscelebrate their extraordinary strengthand humbleness.”

• See Lane’s work at teresahrlane.com andwatch out for her exhibition on April 15 atMilford Galleries, milfordgalleries.co.nz

Pictures/BabicheMartens

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