RTA Studio Ltd

Wonderful to visit the Fisher and Paykel Global Headquarters as an office to see the years of effort by the team come to fruition! Photos by Mitchell Round

Introducing Richard Naish, the 2026 NZIA Gold Medal recipient 🏅 ⁠ ⁠ Rich epitomises a key mode of practice: architect as problem solver. ⁠ ⁠ Founder of RTA Studio Ltd, his work is characterised by a readiness to engage with some of the most pressing architectural challenges of our moment: developing direct solutions to housing affordability, accommodating our rapidly evolving approaches to education, and addressing our escalating climate crisis by advancing the possibilities of mass timber construction.⁠ ⁠ Importantly, RTA Studio’s most significant projects aren’t cloistered within the private realm. While its portfolio includes aspirational houses, it is dominated by modest homes, factories, hospitality, educational, institutional and commercial buildings – projects that make RTA Studio’s architecture available to a wide range of people. Much of the evolution of Rich’s work has been driven by a desire to make work that is embedded in its cultural and social context, that is socially engaged.⁠ ⁠ Despite this variety and the volume of his output – he is prolific to the point of relentlessness – what shines through is a sense of clarity, and that this is architecture that seeks to make a contribution – to the neighbourhood, to the community, and to the development of our architectural culture.⁠ ⁠ 📷️ Patrick Reynolds ⁠ #nzia #nzarchitecture #nziagoldmedal #congratulations

So good

The final reveal of the transformation at 137 Great North Road, which turns an ageing office building into a sustainable workplace for the future. The existing concrete structure is retained and extended, reducing embodied carbon while maximising views and flexibility. Inspired by mist drifting through the treetops, a custom perforated aluminium screen wraps the building, providing solar control and a distinctive new identity. A landmark project that proves great architecture isn't always about building new.

Such and honour to have been named New Zealand’s best Architecture firm for two years in a row by Architizer. Wonderful to be in such prestigious company as those also named for 2026. Looking forward to sharing more of our ongoing and new projects over the coming months!

So exciting to have 4 projects shortlisted for the 2026 New Zealand Architecture Awards. The projects are the MTG – Hawke’s Bay Museum Research and Archives Centre, The Two Sheds House in Central Otagp, and The Living House in Rotorua. Also in the Hawkes Bay is the Craggy Range Loft refurbishment. Thanks again to the team that worked on these, our wonderful clients, and the collaborators that made these projects a success.

We were incredibly proud to receive the Residential Design Award – Single Family Dwelling at the 2026 Timber Design Awards last week. The Living House was recognised for its use of cross-laminated timber (CLT) to deliver architecturally-designed, affordable and climate-positive housing. It's an honour to have our work acknowledged alongside so many outstanding and innovative timber projects from across Aotearoa. A sincere thank you to Te Kāhui Whaihanga NZ Institute of Architects for sponsoring the award, and congratulations to all of this year's finalists and winners. RTA Studio Ltd #TimberDesignAwards #LivingHouse #RTAStudio #MassTimber #CLT #NZArchitecture #SustainableDesign #ClimatePositive #TimberArchitecture #ArchitecturalDesign #Aotearoa  

Full Steam Ahead – a renovation for Railway St in Newmarket is now under construction! Industrial-sized sheds and railways go together like gravity and flow – their pairing less a coincidence than an enduring logic of place. In Tāmaki Makaurau’s Newmarket, once heaving with livestock, then the nucleus of steamy, noisy machining workshops, there are many such buildings that have endured the ignominy of thoughtless updates. 16 Railway Street was one of them. Where the structure is sound and the simplicity of form holds merit, adaptive reuse just makes sense. We love adding more of these treasures to our storybook. We’ve done it with projects such as the redevelopment of the Tribune precinct in Hastings (where we modernised the former printing-press hall into a light-filled atrium) and, just recently, in our own Morningside workspace – a contemporary reimagining that retained the 430sqm steel-engineering shed’s sense of history. So even though this ugly duckling had a box with a popped-up mezzanine tacked on to its public-facing front, and the patchwork roofing had seen better days, and the porous concrete-block walls were white with efflorescence, the original intention deserved a replay. Our simplified design celebrates the simplicity of the 27-metre-long single gable. Haphazard street-side additions were removed to create parking out front and expose the gable end, now fully glazed so that the internal structural detail – the rafters and beams - become a hero of the piece. This better-defined entry to the building features a fine-finned steel shroud, which filters the soft southern light. A head-height barrier wall in precast concrete screens off and protects the car-parking zone.