The ten storey high structure was built largely by hand from recycled materials over a 30 year period, as a tribute to Stewart's mother, Hinetai Hirini.

He began picking them up in his van and taking them to workshops in the suburb of Newtown where they could learn to make furniture from recycled timbers.

[2] In December 1974, a Pākeha man by the name of Joseph "Taffy" Williamson was murdered on Hopper Street in the Wellington suburb of Te Aro after he provoked 18 year old Rufus Marsh by yelling racial slurs.

[4][2] The building was ten stories high and has been described as a "hand-crafted labyrinth of stairways and mystical rooms, of art and sculpture, a dream-land place.

A number of people were staying in the building at the time, including a group of 27 children from the Ngaio Scouts and nine adults.