Principal of Young + Richards Ltd and judge of the NZ Wood Timber Design Awards for the last two years, Harriet Compton Richards is passionately committed to innovative design and construction with timber, a material she believes New Zealand has the capacity to lead in contemporary construction methods.  I spoke to her about the Awards, and working with wood in New Zealand.


Byron Kinnaird – Harriet, could you elaborate a bit on your background in working with timber internationally, and how this experience and practice has influenced your position and expectations working with timber in New Zealand?

Harriet Compton Richards – I pursued Masters research in Switzerland at the ETH Zurich university in order to focus on  an in depth study of European prefabricated  design and construction methodologies with a focus on timber and green building techniques for the housing industry. Having worked in Melbourne for 4 years  prior I was eager to learn from the advanced European construction technologies with wood and bring back to this part of the world.

Having returned to Auckland I am now enjoying being part of the practice Young + Richards Ltd and continuing to pursue architecture with a focus on modular and timber design.
In addition, my latest venture pursuing the ideas I gained in Europe is the company Eunoia Living Baches – set up with a fantastic team to design and build timber baches throughout NZ.

Byron – So how do you feel New Zealand rates currently in terms of technologies and design with timber, compared to say Scandanavian or other European regions with an established reputation and culture of building with timber -especially pre-fabricated?

Harriet – New Zealand lacks the scale of industrialized prefabrication as operative throughout Europe. We are  now entering an age of increased realization that this is the most efficient practice  in many situations and it’s exciting to see a real interest in pursuing this further in New Zealand and investment in this area.
In the past the perception of prefabrication was tainted and had negative connotations for most people. A new generation of enthusiasts are debunking the old ideas of pre-fabrication and presenting it as the most efficient, high quality and environmental building methodology suitable for many cases.
I believe we can become international leaders in timber detailing and timber products adding value to our logs rather than just shipping them off overseas. Many young NZ companies are now pursuing this which is fantastic to see.

Byron – So how close are we to incorporating or testing these processes in New Zealand at the moment -is there anything else like it at the moment in NZ that could be improved, or are there entirely new manufacturing or industrial environments needed?

Harriet – many factory based construction technologies are being used in large scale buildings and industry such as pre-nail truss factories and it would be great to see more of these techniques used in whole house projects in NZ. Likewise many of the sophisticated timber factories in NZ are working mostly on off-shore projects and it would be great to see more of these large-scale timber buildings being constructed in NZ.

Byron – As a Judge for two years on the NZ Wood Timber Design Awards you must get an expanded view of NZ timber building, how do you feel this contemporary timber work rates internationally?

Harriet – In my experience, particularly this year, the work is of an international, high standard and many sophisticated examples of great architecture were presented. In my experience New Zealand is renowned for its highly designed timber houses – particularly in Australia I found many people looking to New Zealand architecture as leading in this area.

Byron – And in the Awards, have you noticed any interesting shifts in timber design in New Zealand in the last few years, new technologies, more adventurous experimentation, or developments of more traditional building types (the 'bach' for example)?

Harriet – We still have mostly houses being entered and we would love more designers to pursue wood in commercial and industrial situations further.
This year designers have been heavily influenced by the latest European trend  for timber slatted rainscreen claddings and its great to see some fantastic examples of this. Great to see also more people entering the awards and increased complexity of the houses detailing.

Byron – So what are your thoughts for NZ timber design going in to 2010?

Harriet – I think it is a very exciting time for timber designers in NZ at the moment. We are critical in the race to hang on (or win back) and save our name as ‘clean green, 100% pure New Zealand'.