Where we work
Otago based, working across the South Island.
Otago and Canterbury are where most of our work is. Beyond that we take projects on their merits rather than by the map.
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Central Otago
Alexandra, Clyde, Cromwell, Omakau, Wānaka and the country in between. This is our home patch, and the one where we know the ground conditions, the climate extremes and the way the district plan behaves without having to look it up.
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Dunedin and coastal Otago
Dunedin city and the coast either side of it. Steep sites, older housing stock and a lot of homes that could be considerably warmer than they are.
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Queenstown Lakes
Queenstown, Arrowtown and the Wakatipu basin. A demanding planning environment and some of the hardest and best sites in the country.
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Canterbury and Christchurch
We work in Canterbury, both on new builds and on renovation and alteration work. Christchurch, the Selwyn and Waimakariri districts, Banks Peninsula and the Mackenzie country are all within the area we cover.
How distance actually works
The parts of a design job that need us physically present are fewer than people assume. Site visits matter, and we do them. Most of what happens between those visits is drawing work, co-ordination with engineers and back and forth with you, and none of that needs everyone in the same room.
So the practical answer for a project outside Central Otago is that we come to the site when the design needs it, and we work by phone and video in between. For a renovation we will usually want to be on site more often than for a new build, because so much of the design is a response to the building that is already there.
If you are further away again, anywhere in the country, it is worth asking. We have designed homes well outside the South Island and it works when both sides are honest about what the travel costs.
Every council is a bit different
Building consents are processed by the local council, and the requirements, the processing times and the appetite for questions vary between them. A set of drawings that sails through one district can attract a request for further information in the next one over.
That is part of what you are paying a designer for. We deal with the council on your behalf, respond to their questions, and try to head off the predictable ones before the application goes in.
Somewhere on this list, or near enough?
Tell us where the site is and what you are hoping to do with it. The first conversation is free wherever you are.
Get in touch