Transformational Leadership
Reverence Architecture: A Transformative Path
How can transformational leadership in architecture help shape a regenerative and inclusive future for Aotearoa New Zealand - through vision, bold action, and meaningful impact?
In 2023, the creation and realisation of Unison Network’s Windsor Substation Switchroom received a world first Living Building Challenge vs. 4.0 Petal certification. It was awarded through the International Living Future Institute for an Infrastructure & Landscape typology project. A milestone moment for a small practice – leading by example and showing to others the impact anyone can make possible regardless of your size.
This recognition affirmed something I have always believed: architecture must radically shift. In an industry that is destructive and damaging to our very existence and to all of life, we choose hope. As Professor Ian Lowe wrote, "The future is not somewhere we are going, it is something we are all engaged in creating.” Architecture has the power to be part of that creation. To do so, requires changing the way we design, build and be in relationship with the land that we co-exist with.
At the heart of my practice is what I call Reverence Architecture. It is more than design — it is a way of being in relationship with people and place. Reverence Architecture is a transformative process. It awakens the potential of a place to regenerate, and the people engaged in the process to connect with their own potential, and in doing so, enabling all of life to flourish. A place that emanates beauty and is brought into being through reverence and awe. It is cyclical and ever-evolving, rooted in an indigenous lens, moving us from harm towards balance, connection, and life giving outcomes.
Positive, circular and transformative change is vital to help shift the trajectory we are on. We have already transgressed 6 of the 9 planetary boundaries, and we are feeling the effects of these transgressions more and more. The built environment is a big cause of these transgressions. Reverence architecture is one path to help lead others to make the necessary change required of us all.
The Immersion Lifecycle Process, Tukanga, embodies this shift. Tukanga mimics nature and follows a life-cycle, starting with deepening relationship through conception, gestation, emergence, existence to death/rebirth. It is a transformative process that not only effects the land it is on and the people who will occupy it, but the process, decisions and actions that ripple out to the greater community and ecosystem, creating a co-evolving reciprocity of positive impact. It is a way of working that is vital at this time – and unless we change how we do things, the world as we know it will never be the same. The time for radical, transformational change is now.
The Windsor Switchroom was just one step on this journey. It has since been recognised with the NZ Energy Excellence Low Carbon Future Award and as a winner in the Te Kāhui Whaihanga NZIA Awards. These acknowledgements are markers that this way of working is possible.
Today, our journey continues with The Lifehouse — a project designed to embody resilience, regeneration, and community care in its very fabric. The Lifehouse is envisioned as a safe haven for nourishment, power, water, and gathering — a beacon of hope and resilience in uncertain times. It is the first project to fully embed the Tukanga process, weaving the unseen into the practical blueprint of a home.
The time for radical change is now. Architecture has the power to either perpetuate harm or to heal, connect, and regenerate. Through Reverence Architecture and the Tukanga process, we choose the latter. By moving lightly, listening deeply, and shaping spaces where the sacred meets the physical, I believe architecture can become an act of love, reciprocity, and transformational leadership.