About
Builder's instincts. Designer's eye.
Stoak Architecture is a small bespoke practice in Rotorua. I draw houses for the people who'll live in them and the builders who'll put them together — with the same care for both.
The story
I grew up in Rotorua, then moved south with the family at fourteen and finished my schooling in Christchurch. Christchurch is a city I’ve come to love — and the rebuild after 2010 was a remarkable thing to grow up next to. The way that city has come back, the planning that went into the central core, the way design has been taken seriously through the rebuild — I learned a lot about architecture by being there. (My timing on the move could’ve been better, mind — arriving in Christchurch and getting hit by earthquakes was not on the family plan.)
After school I got into construction, started building in Christchurch, and got my first real taste of the industry. I came back to Rotorua in 2014, finished my apprenticeship, and got my Carpentry LBP. Then I hurt my back badly enough that I was told to give up the tools.
That forced me to look at what else I had. I’d always sketched. Always been drawn to art and design. So I combined what I knew — the construction background, the site experience, the technical knowledge — with the thing I’d always loved. It turned out to be the best decision I ever made. I’ve genuinely found my place in architecture.
Bay of Plenty and Waikato in person. Anywhere in New Zealand online — jobs taken on from Kaingaroa to Bluff.
“Drawings that have everything your builder needs.” — that’s the tagline because it’s the test we run on every set before it leaves the studio.
Credentials
Licensed Building Practitioner — Design Class 2. Authorised to design and certify Restricted Building Work on residential and small-to-medium commercial buildings — primary structure, weathertight envelope, and fire-safety detailing on Category 2 buildings. Verifiable on the public LBP register.
Licensed Building Practitioner — Carpentry. Earned on-site building before moving into design. Carries through to how every junction is detailed on the drawings — you can feel the difference between a junction drawn by someone who's nailed one off, and one that hasn't.
Design influences
There’s a reason mid-century design has never really gone out of fashion — it got the fundamentals right. Warm timbers, generous glazing, a real connection between inside and out. The best examples feel grounded and liveable in a way a lot of contemporary architecture doesn’t. That relationship between material, light, and landscape is something I come back to constantly.
Coming from a carpentry background, Japanese woodworking has always stopped me in my tracks — the precision, the way joints are designed to work with the material rather than fight it. That obsession with craft eventually led me to Japanese traditional architecture more broadly. The idea that restraint is its own form of beauty. That a well-resolved detail doesn’t need to announce itself.
Most homes in New Zealand are designed to meet the minimum. That’s fine — but it leaves a lot on the table. A home designed with passive principles in mind — orientation, thermal mass, glazing placement, natural ventilation — is more comfortable to live in, cheaper to run, and worth more when you sell. You don’t have to go full passive house to feel the difference. Sometimes it’s just about making smarter decisions at the design stage, before they cost money to change.
Scandinavian architecture has worked out something a lot of design movements miss — warmth and minimalism aren’t opposites. Pale timbers, considered joinery, rooms that feel calm without feeling cold. They design for long winters and low light, which translates surprisingly well to a New Zealand context. It’s the kind of architecture that looks better the longer you live in it.
Some of the most interesting work comes from sites that look difficult on paper — steep slopes, tight boundaries, unusual orientations, views you have to earn. Constraints force decisions that a blank canvas never would. A house that resolves a hard site well often ends up with something you’d never have designed on a flat section — better outlook, stronger connection to the land. I actively enjoy that side of the work.
Off the clock
My wife Beth and I have two daughters — five and three — which keeps life full. We split our time between Rotorua and Christchurch where her family is, so the southerly drive is a regular part of the year. When we’re not working we’re usually pottering around the house, getting into the garden, or making the most of the forests and lakes on our doorstep up here. Rotorua’s a good place to be.
What you get
Design that gets the time it needs. Concept is where the home is decided — sun, outlook, layout, the way the house sits on the section. That stage gets the same care on a $500k brief as on a $1.5m one.
Detail-driven drawings. Junctions, flashings, framing — sized and called out before the framer asks. The carpentry background shows here: the drawings know what site looks like.
Buildable on a budget. Concept and developed design are priced before sign-off, so you're never building blind.
Council-ready. Full drawing set lodged with consent. RFIs handled.
One-person accountability. I'm always the designer you talk to, run the project, and sign off the work. On larger jobs I have an assistant I've trained personally helping with working drawings — but the design, the decisions and the responsibility sit with me end to end. One designer's eye, one client relationship, one accountable person.
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