Apartment Architects NZ

Apartment architecture in New Zealand’s major centers of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch is fast becoming a defining feature of their respective urban landscapes. In the past apartment buildings tended to be concentrated in CBD locales, but more recently they have begun sprouting up in more suburban locations as the need for housing has grown exponentially and attitudes towards more intensive housing become less conservative. 

The Role Of Apartment Architects

Unlike smaller scale projects, apartment buildings are by their very nature large and complex undertakings. As a result any risks and costs associated with a mistake or lack of foresight and planning can compound quickly. This makes it essential to choose the right apartment architect who is very well versed in compliance, risks and the design technicalities of multistorey residential building design. An experienced apartment architect can not only provide a stunning design that meets your outlined vision, but also provide effective guidance to avoid common pitfalls and costly mistakes.

Apartment Architecture Trends In New Zealand

There is a growing prevalence in New Zealand of mixed-use and sustainable apartment buildings. Mixed-use apartments will generally have commercial properties on the street level with residential apartments located on the floors above. This assists in promoting shorter commute times and traffic congestion, which is great for the environment, as it encourages people to work closer to where they live. 

The DESIGNFIRE Are Experienced Apartment Architects

The DESIGNFIRE are experienced in medium and high density residential developments. We have a strong relationship with local councils and have a dedicated team of fire engineers. This strong compliance background and real-world experience working on multi-unit residential developments allows us to work faster and more efficiently than the competition. Get in touch with us. 

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apartment architects work

We have a proud history of successful new home projects and the portfolio to prove it.

Our experienced and highly skilled architects have provided numerous clients with the best architectural design solutions to help them realise their dream properties. Some of our unique new home projects are shown below – please get in touch with us to see more.

other work we do

Commercial
Architecture

THE DESIGNFIRE is comprised of some of the best architects and engineers in New Zealand, giving us a wide range of specialities and making us your one-stop-shop for commercial architecture.

Multi-Unit Residential

Our architects and engineers stay at the forefront of the latest advances in residential building design, so we can provide you with designs that will match your requirements while fully complying with council codes and regulations.

Interior Design

A dedicated, passionate, and highly talented project team will work with you from putting ideas on paper to well past the completed interior design project.

Recladding

Are you re-cladding a house and need expert consultants to work with you? The team at THE DESIGNFIRE specialises in all types of re-cladding in Auckland, with no project too big or too small.

Alteration

We are committed to providing major home renovation services to our clients, within time and budget and with a minimum of fuss.

our clients

“I have worked with THE DESIGNFIRE since 2014 with projects ranging from residential developments and high-end holiday homes. THE DESIGNFIRE has indeed become not only my company’s “Chief Designer” but also my “Personal Design Adviser”. THE DESIGNFIRE was engaged for all of our high-end residential developments and all of my holiday homes in Auckland. They were able to help me as a single point of responsibility with initial concept designs, material and colour selections right through to implementation and build, all within a set budget and timescale. I gained two fundamental benefits from employing THE DESIGNFIRE.

One is the design itself. They were able to take a few basic and rather uncertain ideas of mine and show how they could be realised to best effect. They put forward the most incredible ideas for floor plans, spatial quality, interior design, and special architectural features. They were particularly amazing at coming up with solutions, and improvising, for the areas I hadn’t considered. Sourcing everything would have taken me weeks, or never at all. I have to say that they have a wonderful & trendy taste of design ideas. They always give you choices and add some interesting things in that you just wouldn’t have thought of, but that works beautifully. Another one is commercial benefits, our clients were all extremely happy with the design solution in our development, and they believe our product is different from those by other developers. I believe THE DESIGNFIRE’s design had some good influence here. Speaking of my own holiday houses, while I’ve only got to enjoy a few days in a year, most of the other times were rented out short term, and the return has been amazing, the stylish houses that THE DESIGNFIRE created generated huge interest and made my houses really popular in the area.”

—Frank Li, Luxury Infinity Investment Group Limited

“We employed THE DESIGNFIRE as the lead consultant to get the Building Consent on our two stories 40 units Motel development in Oamaru. THE DESIGNFIRE was led by Louie Kang.

In their capacity as the lead consultants, THE DESIGNFIRE was required to coordinate with several specialist consultants including Geotechnical Engineers, Structural Engineers, Civil Works designers and planners to compile all necessary documentation to submit the Building Consent application to Waitaki District Council, for the proposed development.

In Oamaru, in the recent past, there has been no such project of this magnitude had been proposed to the council. Hence it was quite new to the staff at the consenting authorities to deal in several specialist areas. This, in return, became an extremely challenging task for THE DESIGNFIRE to make timely technical decisions & professional judgements when dealing with the Consenting Authorities.

THE DESIGNFIRE has shown the highest degree of professionalism, particularly Louie Kang in dealing with various parties to get the Building Consent within budget and time. We are very satisfied with THE DESIGNFIRE’s performance.”

—Hari De Alwis, Goodland Development Limited

“I am Harland Murray from Statesman Projects. We are the main contractor for Wang Trading.

Working alongside CCG was easy; it couldn’t have been better. They handled the council work, provided faster responses to minor variation and the team on site found the plans easy to read. We did have challenges, with the change of specifications for a couple of products. After through the job we had to hold up, waiting for the consents for the minor changes. CCG handled all of this work, and we found it easy.

CCG handled the architectural and the passive fire, which made it easy for us. We had a few challenges on-site with passive fire, and due to the fact that we’re dealing with one team, that was resolved quickly and efficiently.

We definitely would recommend CCG. We look forward to working with them again in the future. They are easy to work with, and we really enjoyed working with them.”

—Harland Murray, Statesman Projects

“THE DESIGNFIRE was recommended to us via work, and we loved their way of just listening to what we wanted, not forcing anything on us and were always at the end of the phone when we needed to talk to them.

You were listening and helping us get the best house we could have. When I compare it to other similar homes on our street, that had the same concept plan, I’m so so so happy we used THE DESIGNFIRE and changed it all around. We even swapped the whole house around by having the master bedroom in the front upstairs so we could maximise the view of the boats and golf club. Thanks, THE DESIGNFIRE we love our house.”

—Jacqui, Proud house owner

“THE DESIGNFIRE has worked closely with KN Building on numerous projects. They have always delivered on what has been agreed to and are a cost-effective architectural solution. They offer the complete package from simple designs to design and build with all engineering aspects taken care of through their network of partners they have formed over the years. THE DESIGNFIRE is KN Building’s first choice when architectural elements are required for any project.”

—J Boom, KN Building

“My name is Farzbod Taefi. I am the director of Skills Update Training Institute.

About five years ago, in conjunction with NMIT, we purchased a site on 42 Upper Queen Street. This building needed a lot of renovation and make-over, so we handed the design amongst a number of architectural firms, and the most attractive design came from THE DESIGNFIRE.

We found them very flexible and receptive to our comments and ideas. I think it was the winning card for us as the client. Getting the permits through the council is not an easy task. They had good contacts in the council, they were well known to the council, and that really speeded up the process. I think if we’ve chosen another group of architects, this project may have taken twice as long. We have recommended THE DESIGNFIRE to many people and referred them to Louie. You know the sample of his work is here, and people can see what they can get.”

—Farzbod Taefi, Director, Skills Update Training Institute

“Thank you all so much for such amazing work getting this consent through in record time! The timing is brilliant. Nerve-wracking, but brilliant!

You guys have been so incredible, so fantastic at following up, chasing, hustling. Without your efforts, there is no way this would have happened and we are truly grateful.

Enormous thanks from all of us at Te Pou

He nui ngā mihi ki a koutou”
—Amanda Rees, Te Pou Theatre