Wellington architects making a mark in community housing
A Wellington Housing Trust project completed in Newtown, designed by Pelorus Architecture.
A new publication paying tribute to progress made by the Wellington Housing Trust in the last five years, has singled out Wellington architecture firms Pelorus Architecture and McKenzie Higham Architecture for special mention.
The launch of the publication – an update by Louise Slocombe to Ben Schrader’s More than a landlord – marked the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the trust.
At the same time an announcement has been made that a new trust is being launched by the name of Dwell Housing Trust. This will extend plans for meeting housing needs beyond Wellington city and into the wider region – the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Kapiti Coast.
In the last five years new developments have been completed on two sites in Newtown and Berhampore; the first worked on by Pelorus with builders Redican-Allwood, and the second by McKenzie Higham with builders Armstrong Downes.
Pelorus Architecture’s Rod Macdiarmid was acknowledged at the launch event last week for being a mainstay of the Wellington Housing Trust since its very beginnings. Macdiarmid now acts as architectural advisor to the trust and continues to play an important part in developing its capability.
Speaking about the trust’s role as a pioneer of non-government social housing provision in New Zealand, Macdiarmid noted that in the early years there were no government policies whatsoever for a ‘third sector’ of housing. He also noted the personal risks taken by trustees to secure loans for houses, and the generous support of people in the Wellington community who literally “loaned houses” for trust tenants to occupy.
The trust currently houses 94 people in 26 homes and has the ambitious goal of owning and managing 500 homes by 2017. It is currently on the point of delivering its first mixed-tenure development, involving the launch of a new shared-ownership housing scheme.
Trust chair Paul Scholey made the comment that there is “still so much to be done”. In that light, the trust was “bitterly disappointed” to have its application for funding for a housing project in Porirua turned down by the Social Housing Unit this year.
A feature of the way that the trust intends to “influence the future” – a favourite phrase of trust Director, Alison Cadman – is by maintaining close relationships with local authorities and growing its partnerships with other community organisations such as the Wellink Trust, Sisters of Compassion and the Refugee Reunification Trust.
For more details about the Wellington Housing Trust see www.wht.org.nz
