Gisborne & Hawke's Bay Architecture Awards

What a night! I was thrilled to be part of Te Kāhui Whaihanga NZIA celebration of the Gisborne & Hawke's Bay Architecture Awards. It was great to be able to celebrate this with my clients - Unison Networks. It meant a lot to have them join the celebration and be part of the acknowledgment and recognition of a great project. As always this couldn't have been realised without a great team - in particular a big thanks to Paul Humphreys, Project Engineer for Unison and Tricia Love Consultants - our superstar sustainability consultants.

Unison's vision is to be leaders in sustainability in their field. And this switchroom was the perfect platform to showcase their commitment. In doing so, we challenged the status quo at every step of the process and we came up with something transformational and a world first. In every way this project has delivered. Not only with the ripple effects within the industry; the positive response from the community and the positive impact this project provides, it also has been recognised by our peers - both within the network and architectural industry. In 2022, it was awarded the NZ Energy Excellence Award for Low Carbon Future Award, in 2023 we received the Living Building Petal Certification Vs 4.0 for Infrastructure and Landscape typology - a first in the world...and now this award. We feel truly honoured to have received these awards as we see it as a reflection of a project well done and one that is transforming the industry towards a regenerative future.