Rosalind Derby Architecture

Architecture is the place where site and people connect.

Architecture is a measure of conflict and resolution.

Drawing meaning and significance from the physical and spiritual sense of place, it connects you to the familiar and unfamiliar in your environment, forming and supporting your experiences with safety or excitement, continuity and contrast. Large scale or in simplicity of proportion, buildings inform daily life.

Architecture practice is a responsibility, and this is reflected in a Code of Ethics simply phrased in formal statement. It is a singular and successful document, from which all practitioners interpret their chosen professional role.

Our design process involves a series of stages that resolve layers of information. You can expect full support, challenge, surprise and delight through these stages, starting with a no-obligation, first site meeting.

Through the language of architecture – light, scale and form, enclosure, view and orientation, warmth, materials and shelter, sense of place, community connection – we reveal the beauty of your building for you, your family, your way of living and your well-being.

We also support you through the challenges, clearly indicate the costs and clarify compliances and planning laws.

In collaboration with our structural consultants and construction contractors, our aim is to sustain the spirit of intention cultivated from the first meeting, and as it evolves along the complex road of decision-making.

The First Meeting
This is a special meeting with exciting discussions that determine your needs and expectations. It includes a full review of your existing house and site, or your property for a new build. The character of your property and all environmental factors are brought to light through discussion and observation. We typically give you significant design directions and an indication of requirements for other consultants, i.e. structural or land survey.

The Brief
We will then provide a brief, the written document recording all the key aspects discussed on site and other potential indicators. The brief is a dialogue tool and clarifies that we have correctly understood your situation, including critical possibilities for the next design stage.

Fees Proposal
The fees proposal accompanies the brief and covers all stages of professional service, from preliminary and final sketch design; working drawings for building consent application and construction, along with the final stage of contract administration and observation of the building contract; through to completion.

Initial Sketches
Your first set of sketches will include an existing plan (for additions and alterations to an existing home): up to three options for proposed floor plans at all floor levels; a sketch roof plan; elevations of all wall orientations; sketch of a construction section to indicate possible construction methods; and plumbing and drainage indicators.

We also indicate requirements for other consultants such as a structural engineer, resource planner, land survey, or geo-tech.

We indicate the scope within your stated budget.

The Preliminary Sketch Design stage explores all possibilities early on, to provide your first set of design solutions. These are presented within a two-hour discussion, where we can observe alternatives right there and then, or for consideration within the following design stage.

Final Sketches
This can be an extended period of design and challenging decision-making in which ideas are revised and tested, sketches are updated, and materials, form and site location are resolved.

Consults with both the local authority and a resource planner may be required for significant boundary or height demands. The Final Sketch Designs also allow the structural engineer to provide a design and fees proposal. Once they are approved, we can commence the working drawing stage.

Working Drawings
At this stage you will receive technical drawings, specifications and select final materials. This includes a complete set of working drawings, specifications and other supporting documents for the building consent application; pricing/tender and selection of contractor; and construction.

It also includes final co-ordination of all specialist consultants’ documentation.

The local authority building office is committed to a 20-day process for approving a building consent, plus further time to complete any requests for further information and office processing.

Contract Support
Our services also include assistance in selecting your contractor and arranging and administering your building contract. We are available for any meetings on-site with you and/or your contractor, throughout the construction contract, to final completion of the build. Our involvement in this stage is at your approval and is charged at an hourly rate + GST.

You can select all or parts of these stages of service.

My town: our community places, all with a backdrop of the river from hills to the sea.

As Rosalind Derby, I have impacted change in urban environments around Aotearoa.

In the early 80s, I designed, advocated for and consulted successfully, in public participation workshops, to form treed streetscapes as traffic-calming outdoor rooms throughout the streets of Ponsonby and Herne Bay, Auckland.

In 1986, in campaigning for council in the Whanganui city elections, my advocacy for re-imagining the Whanganui CBD, the preservation of its heritage buildings and the opening of the city's urban heart to the river, was followed up by others to become the Whanganui we now know and love. A cultural city gem, achieving the status of Unesco International City of Design.

As a member of Friends of Queen Elizabeth Park, Paekakariki and as project manager on the team to preserve the Stables in the Park Barn, we ran a successful, volunteer-build project for a heritage preservation. The enhanced Greater Wellington regional focus on the park through this community action has attracted more architectural builds as a result.

When I work in any urban space, the focus is on making the most of opportunities for the community in the built world.

When I work in any urban space, the focus is on making the most of opportunities for the community in the built world. Now as a member of Placemaking Aotearoa and Women in Urbanism Aotearoa, I have strong links and nationwide connections to help create a bright future for public-place design and the collective urban experience.

Have you heard of pop-up architecture? Architecture interventions in existing built space? Temporary pavilions as shared space in urban or green-space environments?

I would like to show you.