Grand Designs NZ: Family honour Kiwi legend restoring quake-damaged home

John Britten's family in the Victorian stables he converted into a family home. Photo / Screenshot

Grand Designs NZ's new season is off to an emotional start, with its first episode following a Christchurch family who honoured their late father - renowned mechanical engineer John Britten - by restoring his beloved earthquake-damaged home.

Britten, a visionary motorcycle designer whose inventions are celebrated today, lost his life to skin cancer in 1995, and in 2011, his brick home was badly damaged in the Christchurch earthquake. His family were left with a long and expensive restoration process.

Britten's daughter Isabelle Weston and her husband Tim took on the task of restoring the old Victorian stables, which Britten converted into a home for him and his family.

Their build is ambitious, with the aim of restoring the home and adding a new garage that doubles as a studio apartment. In the episode, Isabelle and Tim hope to open parts of the home as a bed and breakfast.

They're thwarted by the discovery of asbestos, miscommunications and setbacks - and they watch their $2 million budget grow larger as complications continue.

Miraculously, they pull it off - and the results are dazzling.

"It looks absolutely stunning," says host Chris Moller. "I can see Tim and Isabelle's bold, modern influence here.

"The sitting room ... truly embodies John's wonderfully unconventional style."

The house features many nods to Britten's legacy, including one of his beloved motorbikes, which lives in the sitting room.

At the start of the build, Isabelle's sister Jessica comments on how the home is the beating heart of Britten's memory.

"It's a really full-on experience," she says. "For me, coming in here, it's so many emotions, because it's all the memories that it used to be and all of the hopes of what it can be. It's like a flood gate of memories."