Community Housing Aotearoa

This year Construct teamed with Community Housing Aotearoa and was recently a sponsor/exhibitor at their annual conference in Auckland.
Community Housing Aotearoa (CHA) is a peak body for Aotearoa’s community housing sector.
with 150+ members including community housing providers and partner members such as developers, consultants and local councils. CHA’s provider members house approximately 35,000 people nationally across 19,300 homes.

Working in the Social and Community Housing Sector as Construkt has for over 20 years, we know this is an area where Construkt is able to bring its design and construction knowledge into housing that literally transforms people’s lives.

Construkt have a track record in working for public and private community housing providers at both a national and local level, providing Construkt with experience in different approaches to the provision of social housing.

In respect to design, there are three approaches that guide our social housing work:

1. ‘Dignity through Design’- where we understand that for the social housing tenant, housing is integral in establishing dignity across all aspects of their lives, and,

2. ‘The social house is not the experimental house on the corner of the street’ - where we recognise that the social housing tenant does not want to be the case study, or identifiable experimental house, but rather social housing that is contextual and as far as possible blind tenure, can be one of the most dignifying aspects of the design work. This means we place equal emphasis on the design of the space between the house façade and the street which can be critical in integrating the house with the existing streetscape.

3. ‘The house fits the Tenant’ – where we recognise that by starting at a design level, we can develop houses tailored to specific tenants needs, be they accessibility, multigenerational housing, or housing that is adaptable over time, rather than tenants needing to accommodate their needs within possibly less than ideal existing housing stock.

Beyond the individual dwelling we also recognise how important community creation and integration is when designing in the Community Housing sector. This relates to an individual development, where communal spaces both indoors and outdoors can allow for community gatherings to occur, to how a house or development integrates with a streetscape and the wider suburban fabric to enhance community engagement.

The video link below highlights some of these points.

At Construct we are both serious and passionate about the challenges of working in the Community and Social Housing sector. We look forward to this area of our work expanding through our partnering with Community Housing Aotearoa

https://www.facebook.com/MAlTAMAKI/videos/1345282885600179