Where did you both grow up?

Liz: In Wellington. We also both studied architecture there at Victoria University. I graduated in 1997 and Rochelle in 1996. At university we became friends and created our dream to have a practice together.

How would you describe your practice?

Liz: We are a small practice, with two directors and an architectural graduate, Stefanie Sebald. As a practice of three women, I think we are less obsessed with form and more focussed on the actual experience of space.

What architecture firms did you work for prior to establishing your practice?

Liz: I worked in Auckland. For six years I was at Pete Bossley Architects, then two years with Gaudin Architects and I also spent one year working with Amanda Reynolds.
Rochelle: I stayed in Wellington working at Melling Morse Architects and Herriot+Melhuish: Architecture.

Liz, what do you believe typifies the modern New Zealand house?

I hate to say it, but it has to be indoor/outdoor flow. I think most of us have an urge to get outside. Also, whether we like it or not, we do gravitate around the kitchen or the television. That’s just life, and the modern New Zealand house seems to reflect this.

And Rochelle, what’s your favourite New Zealand house?

The Walker House by Cowey and McGregor in Christchurch. It is a modernist house built in the sixties. I love its simple form and its position on the hill.

If you could design a house anywhere in New Zealand, where would it be?

Liz: I would probably prefer anywhere on the edge. On the edge of the city, the edge of the island or the edge of a mountain.
Rochelle: As a Wellingtonian I love dramatic sites, especially ones that feature hills, bush and sea, particularly sites with a bit of drama and intensity.