How?

Ohu is to work as a volunteer group, do as a working party, do cooperatively. Paheko is to combine, cooperate, join. It is our mission to avoid the siloed exclusive approach that has plagued our building industry for years. You know what I mean; Client engages a designer who does a design, passes it to an engineer, who doesn’t understand the design, but makes it stand up anyway, and then after consent, a builder gets hold of a design and engineering he doesn’t understand and decides to build it the way he knows, disregarding the plans. 

Not surprisingly, something then goes awry! This leads to a very frustrated client who asks...

To which I respond just as frustratedly...

To do the mahi in cooperation requires everyone getting around the table and understanding each other’s drivers, needs and requirements. It is simply invaluable for the engineer, builder and supplier to understand what their client’s reasons are for building a healthy home. It’s all about you, after all it’s your house!

The way we do this is with a Design Workshop.

The timing for this may be site specific; a hill site or potentially poor ground is likely to need earlier engineer and builder engagement, than a flat site for example. However, a good time is once you and your designer have agreed on a concept or preliminary design. This is the first time your ideas are translated into drawings and then refined to suit planning requirements and site constraints. There may be one or more design workshop(s), depending on your home’s requirements. The most important thing is that you are present, as its your house. It’s likely one of your bigger investments and you want it to proceed smoothly. Also, you’ll get a good feel for how well your team is likely to work together.

Ideally, the designer, the structural engineer and the builder are present as a minimum. It may also be helpful to have any specialist supplier present too, perhaps at subsequent meetings. 

Following the workshop, everyone can then go away and do their thing confident that they fully understand what is required of them and each other.

After having a successful design workshop, it has been our experience that your home build will almost always run smoothy. 

Without one, it rarely does.