Business Women’s Network (BWN) Business Behind the Scenes event on November 19 at Ignite Architects had been a long time coming to fruition due to the challenges of COVID.

Our BWN Co-ordinator Jeanette Mindham reflects on the night. 

After originally being planned for earlier this year it was rescheduled to September, but then due to the second wave of COVID regulations was pushed back again so we were very grateful that the event was finally taking place.

This completely aligned to the theme of Ignite’s presentation which was ‘Out of challenge comes opportunity’.

Shara Paulo, Danielle Cumming and Katrina Eden each shared their different backgrounds and experience that had lead them to their current position and also gave an insight into some of the projects they have been involved in.

Shara had taken the more traditional path of studying Architecture at University and then gaining industry experience. An interesting statistic she shared is in New Zealand there are actually slightly more females than males graduating with architectures degrees, however when it comes to registered architects the ratio swings heavily the other way with women only making up 30%.

This may be due to the length of time it takes, as it typically involves five years at university and a minimum of two to three years of professional experience.

Shara felt that women with their natural tendencies to be more empathetic and transformational in their approach brought higher levels of creativity and innovation to architecture as they seek to ensure they are truly serving their clients with the designs they create.

She also explained how for Ignite team it is vital that the spaces they design have a positive impact on our health and wellbeing, especially given that we spend almost 87% of our time indoors.  This is reflected in Ignite’s vision statement: Our core belief is that good design can improve human outcomes and positively contribute to our collective future.

Danielle shared with us her experiences of growing up in Glasgow to coming to live in Tauranga ad how architecture is a combination of both a love of the Arts and with the practical elements of a science.

Katrina then concluded telling us more about her role as an interior designer; again reinforcing that it is the art and science of understanding people’s behaviour to create functional spaces within a building.

It was great to hear about the various projects they were involved in like the City Laneways, community housing, and the Farmers Development to enhance the development of our city.

We left with a greater understanding of the role of architecture and excited about the vision for the future of Tauranga architecture.