DESIGN —— Woman in architecture
A positive difference In the latest installment of our Architecture+Women NZ series, we speak to member and Wirihana Leadership Award winner Louise Wright. INTERVIE W
Louise, what inspired you to take up architecture as a profession? As a child, I loved building blocks, Lego, drawing, and making huts in the bush by our home near the Hutt River. My father was a ministerial secretary in Wellington and I’d spend weekends with him in the Beehive and his corporate offices, which fascinated me. I was interested in the city and drew a lot of houses, castles and other structures. I studied design and technical drawing at high school and went on to architecture school at Victoria University, where I was awarded a scholarship to study architecture in Rome, Italy. From then on, I was quite hooked on architecture and its influence on living. You and your husband Justin have been running your studio Assembly 116 homest yle
Architects for 15 years — has your business evolved much in this time? Our business is entwined with our life and has proved to be agile as we’ve changed locations and economic contexts. We established it in Wellington in 2005, where we primarily worked on residential projects and some public projects at Wellington Zoo. We had our children — Sabina, and twins Thomasin and Lido — in 2007 and 2009, and remained in Wellington until 2011. Then, in a post-GFC, slightly depressed climate, we pitched and won a number of prefabrication projects, including Auckland’s Britomart showcases in the lead-up to the 2011 Rugby World Cup, a widespread marae upgrade project in the central North Island for Tūwharetoa, and student accommodation pods for Auckland University. We made Kākahi in the King Country our temporary base
from which to deliver these projects, then in 2012, when they were completed, we moved south to Arrowtown, which we still call home. The focus of our practice has naturally shifted since then. Our reputation is quite solidly for houses now, with some bespoke commercial/tourism and minor public works projects in the mix. We also work with developers on residential developments. In the North Island, we practised construction efficiently, but here our attention has moved to highend residential projects and thermal performance in construction. A number of our projects include rammed earth, which is now a defining speciality. What shapes your aesthetic? The aesthetics of our projects are the result of many factors — it’s not something that’s predetermined but instead
Photography: (this page) Leigh Jeffery and (opposite) Simon Devitt
Alice Lines
