My early years of practice ( John Chaplin Design ) were largely made up of new hill home projects and in association with engineer Warren Lewis, broke a lot of new ground with some of the first pole homes designed in Christchurch and to a larger extent the whole country.

Warren Lewis had also just set up in his own Engineering practice and has been my engineer of choice for over 40 years.

Material choices were limited and the NZ Building regulations and planning rules were flexible, making life easy for both design and construction.

Timber framing was largely Rimu, but slowly this was being replaced by treated pine, some of very dubious quality.

Similarly, Kahikatea ( white pine ) was readily available and relatively cheap.

I hope to write more on this subject as part of my blog and articles section.