Taking local ‘Better Building’ model to Wellington

Sue Wards - Wānaka App

Two members of Wānaka’s Better Building Working Group have spoken at the Registered Master Builders Association Constructive Conference in Wellington, taking the group’s message of smarter building to a wider audience.

The Better Building Working Group, which was established after the 2018 Wao Summit, consists of more than 40 members - architects, builders, tradies, developers, suppliers and mental health experts.

Its vision is for better building, zero waste, and mental health and wellbeing.

Steering committee member Monique Kelly, who spoke at the Wellington conference with fellow committee member Aaron Thule, told the Wānaka App that being invited to speak was recognition of the group’s work in tackling construction waste and educating on “climate smart” building.

“It was an amazing opportunity to represent the group at Constructive and talk about how we're slowly and quietly getting on with shifting the system in the Southern Lakes,” she said.

“Our local action is now starting to have a ripple effect into national thinking.”

But, she said, it was hard not to feel overwhelmed by the need for change in the building sector.

“While navigating a slowing economy, we're faced with the urgency to build hundreds of thousands of affordable, climate-smart houses to deal not only with the current housing shortage, but also start to prepare for future population projections.”

Meanwhile, Monique said, the government is “kicking the can down the road” on housing.

“They've stopped all of the Kainga Ora housing projects, which has suddenly dried up the pipeline of work of many building companies around New Zealand and put our ability to build enough houses for our future population into jeopardy.”

Monique said that leaves the onus on housing trusts such as the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust to “pick up the slack”.

“They've also put on hold the proposed Building for Climate Change amendments to the Building Act which is needed to make us on par with other OECD nations.”

“We seriously need some long term, cross part thinking in how we are going to build communities into the future,” she said.

Monique said build-to-rent models are available, and communities need to “think outside the box” when it comes to building smarter and more efficiently.

Social innovation at a local level is also required, she said.

“The Better Building Working Group facilitated by Wao is an example of how this can happen in the real world.”