Painting a House From Every Country in Oceania
We are back with another continent in the Paint the World series! For those of you who don’t know this is a series I started in 2024 where I paint a house inspired by the architecture of every country!
I have been going country by country and so far have done North, Central and South America!
I have been posting a short video and some fun facts associated with every country over on my YouTube channel so make sure you check out the full playlist if you want to see them come together! And make sure to subscribe to see the countries that are coming!
In this blog I will be going through all of the countries in the Oceania region(which consists of Australia, New Zealand and surrounding islands in the south pacific ocean) and talking about my inspiration behind them!
If you want to read about the other posts I have made about this series you can read them here:
But let's get started!
New Zealand:
The first country in our Oceania region was New Zealand! Most of the houses here, and honestly through the whole Oceania region, are built with timber and bamboo.
Colonizers tried to build the houses out of stone, but it turns out that is really bad for the earthquake prone land.
New Zealand is very coastal, with the most inland part being 75 miles from the ocean. This means a lot of their houses have big balconies and have a bit of a bungalow vibe to them.
Australia:
For Australians I painted a queenslander, which is more typical in the Queensland region of Australia than other parts of the country but since this style of architecture started in Australia I decided to go for it.
A queenslander is defined by the balconies, being made of timber, having exterior stairs, gabled roofs, and being built off the ground.
There is a variety of terrain across Australia, and so the architecture can vary depending on the area you are in.
Vanuatu:
In Vanuatu they build with a lot of big windows and doors as well as use a lot of natural materials such as timber, palm leaves and bamboo.
And a slight behind the scenes look, this was the first house in the series that I redid. I noticed while looking up inspiration photos that a lot of the houses had a sort of woven exterior look(which will be a common theme) so I decided to try and recreate that style. But it looked so bad. Like popcorn. And I didn’t want to do that to my Vanuatans out there, so I redid it, and I think it looks a lot better now!
Tuvalu:
In Tuvalu, they build with a lot of adaptable architecture so they can move with the changing ecosystem. They will use coral rock foundations which are strong but can be transported, and then build their houses on that.
Fiji:
In Fiji, there are a lot of curves. They have very tall curved roofs, circular structures and even their communities are built in circular formations.
A lot of the architecture in the Oceania region is every community focused, so we will see that pattern going forward.
During my research I found that in Fiji they build tall roofs because it makes them closer to god.
Samoa:
Samoan architecture is also very circular, and they have very open interior spaces.
Fun fact: Samoa is also the first country to experience the new day due to its geographical location!
Tonga:
As I mentioned for Fiji, in Oceania there is a huge importance on community spaces, and because of that some countries have houses that have only one or two rooms for sleeping. They will then have separate bath and kitchen houses that they share.
In Tonga there are also a lot of verandas and a mix of traditional and colonial architecture styles.
Niue:
Niue is the world's largest coral atoll, but it also only has a population of 1800. So this was the time in the series where I got to some countries that just don't have much information on their architecture or architectural influences because of their limited size.
Cook Islands:
In Cook Islands, to preserve the ocean views, no building can be taller than coconut trees, meaning many don't extend past 2 stories.
And now I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't even heard of half of these countries. I mean the oceania region spans 20 millions miles(mind you most of it is open water). And then 10/23 countries in this region have a population under 100,000. Only 6 have a population over 500,000!
Kiribati:
I am not trying to show any bias but Kiribati is one of my favorite countries. This is because it has one of my favorite flags, and for a country with only 135k people it has a twitter following of 53k.
If you have never heard of them I urge you to look up how to say the name, because when talking about this country I have met a lot of people who either think I am spelling it wrong or pronouncing it wrong.
But architecturally speaking, Kiribati is looking to build floating houses which is pretty cool!
Nauru:
Nauru is the third smallest country in the world, which did make it a bit hard to research, just because there isn't a lot of information on its period let alone on its architectural influences and advancements.
It was even harder because there is a house called the ‘nauru house’ in Australia that came up anytime I tried to find anything.
But the architecture is a bit more developed, and even resembles the architecture of the Caribbean more than surrounding countries, because it was really rich in phosphate.
Marshall Islands:
In the Marshall Islands they have a traditional house called the Im Kidjerik which has no walls, its just 4 posts and a thatched roof with a lot in the top where they would sleep and store their food.
And as someone from the north, the idea of this is wild. I mean most of these houses so far have just been thatched roofs and woven bamboo exteriors. But when I looked it up the lowest temp EVER recorded on Marshall islands was 20.4 degrees C or 69 degrees F.
Federated States of Micronesia:
The Federated States of Micronesia are made up of islands that span 1 millions square miles, which is double the size of Alaska. Mind you the land is only 271 square miles.
Architecturally speaking, their houses are made of cement blocks and steel roofs. And this is another country, where especially in rural communities they will have separate bath and cook houses.
Palau:
I decided to deviate ever so slightly from my norm for this house, and I didn't paint the classic ‘family home’ that I have been doing for the rest of the series but instead decided to paint the Bai house, which is a traditional meeting house. And I mean they are just so pretty.
They are built on raised platforms and they have carvings situated into the roof that each have specific meanings. If you want to read more on them here can here.
Solomon Islands:
As we finish up the Oceania region, I will be honest, I expected the houses to be a lot harder to paint. Not because I thought the actual painting would be challenging but because I expected the houses to be more similar to each other.
When doing the Caribbean it was hard to find those subtle differences between the countries, but here even while they use the same materials and in general might have a similar look, they all have a very individual flare. As someone painting a house from every country, I really appreciated it.
Fun fact: In the Solomon Islands there is a country named after John f. Kenedy!
Papua New Guinea:
In Papua New Guinea, most of the houses are built without doors or windows, and they also are made with a temporary structure in mind. Like they build the posts and base of the house to be really strong, but they make the walls and ceiling easy to be replaced so if they blow away in the wind it is not as devastating.
I would not be surprised if their thinking applied to the design of other houses in the region, but it was the first time it came up!
Thank you for joining me on this journey through Oceania! Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel to get updates as I work through the other continents!
Next up: Asia!
Comments
Post a Comment