New Zealand continues to attract overseas buyers looking to invest, establish a holiday home, or create a long-term base for family and future generations. The landscapes, lifestyle, and stable property market make it an attractive place to invest.

Building projects have a habit of humbling everyone involved in them. On paper a project can look tidy, rational, even elegant. Then the real world arrives with its material prices, labour pinches, engineering constraints, local council requirements and the laws of physics. Somewhere in that messy intersection sits the actual cost of construction. One of the most common misunderstandings in building projects is the role we play in that equation. As the designers we can influe