Sorensens Place

Mike Greer Homes is New Zealand’s largest home building company, they approached Woods to work on joint venture project with the Housing New Zealand Corporation in Christchurch on the edge of the Red Zone.

Background

This unusual and difficult site on the edge of the red zone in Christchurch had already employed two consultants and produced five schemes, with none providing a solution that satisfied the multitude of constraints on this site, the needs of the clients’ and expectation of Council. However once the Woods team was approached we worked a solution that ticked all the boxes, by extending the cul-de-sac, providing a landscaped stormwater treatment pond and provided a large number of single-level houses to meet the brief. Our unique approach and abilities resulted in a scheme that looks effortless, yet is ingenious in its approach. This integrated multi-unit development has established a benchmark, and developed model for future projects of this nature in Christchurch for both clients involved.

Outcomes

Woods acted as a design manager for this project and through successful collaboration with other consultancies involved, we were able to satisfy issues for Council and received high commendation for the project’s architectural and urban design as well as satisfying the requirements of both HNZ and Mike Greer Homes.

“I must say that it has been a very productive process to date and could be a model for future ‘design build’ design review processes for us. The intelligent and iterative engagement with the builder partner’s architects regarding the concept design will certainly result in much better built outcomes for HNZ” – Sue Evans HNZC Urban Designer