Dermot Bannon on renovations: "It doesn't have to be big to be good"

[Dominique Farrell]

By Charlotte Ryan

Lifestyle

 

With the 17th season of Room to Improve, you would imagine that presenter and architect Dermot Bannon would be well shot of the 'premiere night' nerves, but the furthest couldn't be from the truth.

 

"I still get really nervous when it goes out on air and see what people's reaction [are]"

"You don't really relax until the last episode has gone out and it's all gone without a hitch. You never really sit down and enjoy the fact that it's over."

"It's because I care. I care about what I do. I care about each project. I've been working on each one of these for a year. It goes out on air in an hour", he added. "I just want to make sure that people are happy with it, and homeowners are happy with it, because they don't get to see it beforehand.

"Now, I probably put way too much thought into it and I overthink it. But I can't change that. Even if we were on season number 36, I'd still be the same.

Those nerves are good, I think. And I think the day that you don't have nerves is the day that you stop caring."

 

The Dubliner explained that just as the clients in the office are his bosses, the audience at home tuning in as he guides homeowners toward a potentially life-changing renovation are the ones to impress.

Over the years, Room to Improve has shifted and tweaked its approach, from the tone of the show to the projects it takes on, to remain as true to that audience as it can while still offering a bit of inspiration, Bannon explained.

 

"You're always trying to be relevant to how the country is and do projects that people can relate to. And that will change as economies go up and down", he said. "We're aware that housing is a huge issue in Ireland, and that home ownership and home innovations are difficult for a lot of people. So we're trying to reflect that."

 

One episode this season does just that, as Bannon works with an older couple who are 'rightsizing' their home after their adult children have moved out.

Homeowners who have experienced a big move and design project before, Bannon said they were clear in their vision but still got some trademark no-nonsense nudges from the architect on the way.

 

"They've done it before, but that doesn't mean that they're doing it right this time", he said. The results, he said, were offering inventive ways to let family and friends gather in the space, using a few ingenious design tricks along the way. But to find out more, you'll have to tune in.

 

Speaking about his approach to clients over the years, Bannon said, "the methodology hasn't changed, but what has changed is money budgets".

"When I started off Room to Improve, people were on tracker mortgages. I would often persuade them, 'Look, it's worth spending that little bit extra to get what you really want because you'll regret it'. Now, you can't really. People don't have the budget for it. You have to come up with a more inventive [way]."

"It doesn't have to be big to be good."

 

On the back of a particularly volatile year for the housing market and households who continue to struggle amid the cost of living crisis, offering realistic and sustainable models of owning or renovating a home is a priority for the Room to Improve team. It's also a personal concern of Bannon's, who has been more and more outspoken in recent years about how "broken" he feels the housing system is in Ireland.

"I've got kids, my eldest is 21 in a few weeks. And I'm there [thinking], what job does she need to get to afford a very, very basic house? And does your whole life then become about getting a job that pays really well to service a mortgage or service rent?

"Where's the creativity? Where's the fun? Where's the excitement, where is the passion in life? Where's the artist going to live? Where's the poet going to live? Where's the writer going to live? Where's the comedians going to live? The people who make life worth living for the rest of us, teachers, gardaí.

"It's generally the people who are on the low incomes, are the people we actually need the most. They're the people who give us a cup of coffee in the morning, the people in the shop who say hello to you and make life worth living because you're popping in. And we've got to, as a society, make sure that there's a place in every town, village, city for them to live."

 

Having travelled the world gleaning inspiration from other housing markets and governments over the course of his career, Dermot points to cities like Copenhagen and Malaga as examples of forward planning done well. His "utopian vision" for a city where you can walk 15 minutes' from your home or rented accommodation to work, passing cafes, parks and more on the way, is informed by examples he's seen.

 

While acknowledging that many of the bodies in charge of planning in Ireland are "swamped" and "overworked", he takes inspiration from other European cities that implement a 20-year plan for imagining how they will look in the future, rather than simply the next year.

 

"There's no reason why Dublin or any of the cities in Ireland can't be like that. But it needs people to want it. And sometimes I think it needs us to want it as well. Do we really love our cities enough? Or [would] most of us, if we had half a chance, would move as far away from cities as possible and work from home."

 

It's part and parcel of the projects he takes on in his client work and his work on Room to Improve, he said, offering new ways to think about cities and homes for the future.

 

"Everybody in every strata of society", he said, wrapping up, "should be able to live in a neighbourhood, not just a certain cohort."

 

Room to Improve Sundays, 9:30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.

 

RTÉ Lifestyle.