Good design is always about caring for many different things, and people are at the centre of this. By focusing on people, relationships, listening and understanding, we believe this results in a balanced, well-designed project, giving joy, health and happiness to the users.
Maintaining budget is as important as good design; we cannot have one without the other.
Everything starts with a discussion and an idea; from this we can give you an architectural service proposal. The architectural service proposal outlines our scope and estimates the design fee. We encourage you to ask for an architectural service proposal anytime.
"We chose to work with Duncan at Solarei, after considering other options as he was the only one who had a focus on building an environmental passively designed house within our budget.He had a sensible design approach, had allot of patience, as we had lots of questions, ideas, and revisions. Our site had a tight building platform and he managed to squeeze allot of house onto the site without compromising the overall passive solar design, passive design strategies, or overall architectural design.He responded promptly to our emails and was fun to work with. As our house is under construction currently, I can see how important the work at the design stage is. We would recommend him to those who are looking at an environmental passively designed, eco-friendly home”.
+ Robert Wilks and Sally Murdoch, Tasman, New Zealand
“Our dream was to build a small sustainable house. After an extensive research we chose Duncan from Solarei for his experience in environmental designs based on the principles of passive solar and passive ventilation. We had a challenging steep site and like many definitely no unlimited budget. The whole process was pretty much a co-design were Duncan proposed a design and ideas based on our wish and requirements list and building products we wanted to use. In several rounds we made iterations on the plans until we were completely satisfied with the design. Now living in our home has been a joy. Warm and comfortable in winter with the winter sun warming up the house and in summer having all the cross ventilation to cool the house. Super low electricity bills and the lay-out of our home works really well. The design and build process went smooth without any stress and super happy with the end result”.
+ Francis Stevens and Margriet Geesink , Pahi, Kaipara Harbour, Northland, New Zealand
Duncan began his architecture career working for ‘CPRW Fisher Architects’, then ‘Jones Architects’ in Auckland, New Zealand. He then ventured to Southeast Asia, enthusiastic to broaden his horizons, and worked for highly recognised architectural practices such as ‘DWP’, ‘SODA-THAI’ and, ‘HB DESIGN’, all based in Bangkok, Thailand. In 2011 he established Solarei Limited (NZ).
“I wanted to offer people modern, creative, architectural designs full of natural warmth, natural cooling, healthy comfortable living, and sunlight. The designs had to be based around some form of sustainable economy. How designs related to people and nature, worked with the environment, would naturally heat and cool, was always going to be how I approached architecture.”
Duncan Firth is the recipient of multiple sustainable architecture awards and has been featured in publications in Australia, China, New Zealand, Thailand, and The United States of America.
Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP): Design Two, BP121392
Participant, Superhome Movement (NZ)
Bachelor of Architecture (UNITEC, NZ)
Peter Grant has worked in various sectors of the design and construction industry over the past thirty years. He started as a carpenter on skyscrapers in Wellington, then London before becoming a UK based architectural photographer, been published in ‘The Guardian’, ‘The Times’ and ‘The World of Interiors’.
Peter bought a yacht in the USA and sailed with his family back to New Zealand over three years qualifying as a Yacht Master on the way.
In 2016 he designed and built an eco-house which inspired him to go and get a 'Diploma in Architectural Technology'.
New Zealand Diploma in Architectural Technology (Open Polytechnic, NZ)
Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, Victoria University, Wellington, NZ
Regenesis Design Practitioner, Regenesis Group, USALRPS,
Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society
