At Alki, every project begins with conversation: listening to stories, understanding aspirations, and finding the threads that make each client unique. This year, we had the privilege of working with families, individuals, and communities from Northland to Bob’s Cove, from Purakaunui Bay to the wild West Coast of Franz Josef.

Our clients invited us into their dreams —whether it was a remote coastal home shaped by wind and sea spray, a renovation nestled among stone and cedar, or a tiny cabin designed to hold big ideas.

This year also marked a deepening of community engagement.

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This year also marked a deepening of community engagement. Speaking at M A Builders’ “Building for the Future” event allowed us to share fundamental sustainability principles with the wider Wānaka building community — empowering homeowners, builders, and designers with tools to make smarter site decisions, orient buildings thoughtfully, and understand how materials shape performance.

These conversations reinforced something we’ve always believed:
Architecture is relational. It happens between people, not just on drawings.

2025 reminded us, again and again, that the land is our greatest collaborator.

From the alpine edges of Wānaka to the rainforest of Franz Josef, our projects asked us to listen — to the sun paths, the prevailing winds, the soil beneath our feet, and the ecological systems surrounding us.

This year, we expanded our work with regenerative and natural materials:
• StrawSIP construction in Franz Josef
• Locally sourced timber, stacked stone, lime and clay
• Prefabrication strategies to reduce waste + build smarter

Our upcoming Franz Josef home — built with StrawSIP panels — marked a new chapter. With filming underway for Grand Designs, the project embodies everything we believe in: carbon-conscious design, small-footprint living, natural materials, and high-performance thinking brought to life on one of the wettest sites in New Zealand.

2025 has reaffirmed that sustainable architecture is not an aesthetic.
It’s a responsibility.

This was the year Alki stepped into its voice as an educator and advocate for high-performance design.

Speaking at the ADNZ National Conference was one of our most meaningful moments of the year. Our keynote centred on architecture’s powerful role in shaping not just buildings, but futures —exploring the idea that every design decision is an act of stewardship for the next generation.

We explored how small, intentional choices accumulate into meaningful impact:
• Choosing materials that sequester carbon instead of emitting it
• Designing envelopes that reduce lifetime energy demand
• Balancing daylight with thermal performance
• Understanding how moisture moves, how heat escapes, and how comfort is created
• And above all, recognising that architecture does not end when the drawings stop — it lives on through the people who inhabit our buildings, through the planet that holds them, and through the legacy we leave behind

every design decision is an act of stewardship for the next generation.

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The message was clear:
to design sustainably is to pay it forward.
Not with grand gestures, but with thousands of small, thoughtful decisions —each one shaping a more resilient and compassionate future.

The year also saw increased use of performance tools in our workflow — including the Actually App, ECCHO energy modelling, and VOC + carbon-aware material selection — allowing us to marry technical rigour with emotional, human-centred design.

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Amid the science and structure, 2025 also reminded us of the quiet magic of architecture — the unseen qualities that make a space feel like it belongs.

This year, we leaned into the idea that architecture is not just drawn. It is felt.

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It is the warmth of morning sun through a timber window.
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The slow reveal of a view through a compressed entry.
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The soft glow of clay plaster at dusk.
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The stillness of a room that breathes.
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The way a cladding system can act as a sundial across the seasons.

thoughtful architecture can be: warm, resilient, handcrafted, and deeply personal.

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That poetic sensibility came to life in the Wanaka Cabin, completed this year and beautifully published in Abode Magazine. The project — a StrawSIP micro-home designed with heart, performance, and tactile materials — became a small but powerful symbol of what thoughtful architecture can be: warm, resilient, handcrafted, and deeply personal. Built from materials available to us, and holding memories of climbing trees as children, it embodies everything we love about designing with honesty and intention.

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