Rachel Venables

A highly experienced architect with exceptional design and master-planning skills gained over the past 25 years. I lead our architectural practice, ensuring our team deliver well considered, commercially successful developments. Whether assisting with a business case or creating a beautiful space, I’m passionate about delivering design solutions that meet your needs and improve the lives of building users and occupants. This includes considering whole of life costs when designing forms and specifying materials. 

I specialise in all design stages of medium to high density residential developments as well as addition/alteration work on heritage homes and high-end new build houses. As the project architect for the Standard House Types with Kāinga Ora, I took a suite of concepts through to 296 MultiProofs with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE). This project is fundamental to delivering scalable social housing at speed in New Zealand. Higher density work has included apartment buildings, developing bathroom pod designs in the pre-fabrication and innovation space and increasing the provision of housing for those with accessibility needs and for the most vulnerable members of our community. 

As the architectural team lead, my focus is broadening the types of projects the team works on, leveraging our design skills and technical expertise into new areas. The site experience and knowledge base the team has gained from remedial projects provides an unparalleled insight into our industry and an assured basis for delivering sustainable new-build projects.

Awards: multiple industry awards for residential architecture and furniture design.