Restoration Australia: Our love affair with heritage homes deepens during COVID-19

When it comes to renovating a heritage home, patience is critical.

In a world in which time is money, maximising profits is critical, and people speed through renovations as quickly as possible, it can pay to take your time in the long run.

At least that’s the top tip from Anthony Burke, a professor of architecture at the University of Technology Sydney and the new host of ABC’s Restoration Australia, which follows the transformation of seven historic homes across the country.

While home owners can plan almost all aspects of a new build and eliminate most risks, restorations and renovations of heritage homes are a different story – but that’s part of the fun.

“I’m a big advocate for taking time, even for the simple things,” Professor Burke said. “Take your time thinking it all through at the beginning. Don’t rush; let the process be the process, which can seem counter-intuitive in the current renovation space where a lot of people want to flip a building as quickly as possible.”

Viewers of such shows will be used to seeing home owners go over time and over budget, an outcome that is often unavoidable for such projects as unexpected discoveries – good and bad – are made along the way.

“The thing about historic houses is you really have to be open about what you will find as you get into the project .. that’s going to add time and cost to the build,” he said.

Many of the season’s projects cost more money and time than expected, with most transformations taking about 18 months and home owners going well into contingency budgets. On top of the usual setbacks that can come with any build, those taking on projects in the midst of a pandemic and renovation boom are facing unexpected delays.

Building supply chains have been disrupted by the pandemic blowing out timeframes, Professor Burke said, with costs for supplies and trades also pushed higher due to strong demand for home renovations.

Some may question why a home owner would bother with the hassle of it all, Professor Burke acknowledged, but there’s a reason the lure of a heritage restoration remains strong for some – offering hope for the thousands of decaying heritage homes across Australia.

“There’s that desire to see your property as something that’s part of a bigger story,” Professor Burke said. “We all enjoy and understand the experience of a building that has had a life before you; there’s something about that which is bigger than you as an individual that is really fantastic,”

While looking beyond the country’s obsession with property prices can be hard, he believes attitudes toward homes are changing. More people – particularly as they spend more time at home during the pandemic – are looking beyond dollar figures for something richer, more fulfilling and substantive in their home and how they live their everyday life.

“There’s that general quality [in heritage homes] that we’ve lost in much of our building today because of optimisation in the way the construction industry works,” he said. “You can feel the real difference between really lightweight construction, quick speedy builds, and those areas where real craftspeople have been involved … and the difference that makes.”

In addition to preserving valuable cultural heritage and creating architecturally rich neighbourhoods, heritage restorations and working with the existing fabric of a building were a massive step forward for energy saving and sustainability, Professor Burke said, noting the greenest building is the one that is already built.

“This is where some of best designers and architects the in the world are working right now … the combinations of old and new is an incredible exciting design trend and incredibly important from the point of view of cultural heritage and sustainability,” he said.

Restoration Australia airs on ABC at 7.40pm Sunday.