Architecta Ltd

Susanne has recently designed our new home which we are in the process of building. We wanted to build an energy-efficient home using sustainable materials. After visiting one of Susanne’s designs on a superhome tour, we knew she was the right architect for us. We had a very positive experience with Susanne who listened to our wishlist and turned it into an exciting solution. Susanne provided sound advice and guidance through the design process, helping us to make good decisions, especially with sustainability and energy efficiency in mind. She researched new materials and guided us through the resource consent and building consent process. Communication was clear throughout the project, not only with us but also with the building team we engaged, ensuring we were all on the same page. We can’t wait for our build to be finished so that we can see the final product! Thanks Susanne for all your help.

Susanne from Architecta has designed a Minor Household Unit for my site in Christchurch. The site had limitations and my brief was to work within a budget, to maximise the size of the unit and to avoid having to apply for Resource Consent. We have since worked through unforseen difficulties raise by Council to achieve building consent, and I am delighted with the innovative and creative solution she came up with and look forward to seeing it built. Susanne was approachable, prepared to be collaborative and has listened to and incorporated design suggestions - where appropriate. She has always been clear and straightforward in her conversations with me and I highly recommend her. Jan Woodhouse

We worked with Architecta on the designs for our new-build house. We were keen to introduce as many energy efficient and eco-friendly features into the plans as possible, whilst working to a tight budget. Susanne was extremely knowledgeable about the principles of energy efficient design and worked very closely with our builder to help keep costs down, advising us about areas where we could use less expensive materials and adapting the concept plan where necessary. As the plot is part of a development, there were also a number of design restrictions and covenants to consider. Susanne was able to work with these but she also contacted the developers to see where rules could be bent and this was integral in coming up with a plan that worked for our site! Throughout the entire process, we were always kept informed and any inquiries that we had were answered very quickly. Once everything had been submitted to the council for consent, their questions and information requests were also handled very efficiently. Overall, our experience of working with Architecta was excellent! We are extremely pleased with the finished plans and we cannot wait to see the building finished so that we can move in!!

We engaged Susanne to redesign our late 1960s home which included everything except the bedrooms. We supplied our concept ideas and then left it to Susanne to come up with the specifics. Susanne met with us numerous times, and ongoing communications were easy. It was amazing how the final design optimised the available space and delivered beyond our expectation. Once we were happy with the design Susanne coordinated the next steps to find a builder/project manager, kitchen designer and colour consultant, as well as guided us through the complex process of consents and contracts. The project team, including all sub-contractors were just great to deal with. The final result was perfect, hit the mark with our concept idea and we love living in it. Thanks Susanne for the amazing transformation and we would recommend you to others without reservation. Thanks Tony and Jo

I have used Susanne from Architecta Ltd now for two major projects. One a significant earthquake repair combined with a substantial renovation. The other was a complicated renovation of an investment property. Firstly let me emphasise the importance of human relations when under-taking such significant building. Susanne from Architecta quickly stabled excellent working relations with the appropriate members of my family. Those relations were characterised by punctuality, vision, flexibility of thought and a strong commitment to keep within budget. Susanne from Architecta made her ideas very clear and user-friendly but was open for alternative views and incorporated these into final plans in an accommodating , thoughtful and often humorous manner. Her skills of architecture have been very evident with all planning procedures including drawing obtaining Council Consent in an efficient and effective manner. Put briefly Susanne from Architecta was superb.

We engaged Susanne to design an energy efficient home to the homestar 7 standard. At the first meeting we came with a few rough ideas sketched down and within a few minutes Susanne had taken these rough ideas and completely remodeled them into what is the basis of the final design. The building site had a number of tight constraints that needed to be worked within, in the end we don't think we could have come up with a better design and site layout that makes the most of the location, the northern aspects, and uses every square m so their are no wasted dead spaces.

We found Susanne to be very professional and great to work with. She is a good communicator and listens to the needs of her clients. Her knowledge, work quality , and being able to meet deadlines makes Susanne some one that we can highly recommned to others.

Susanne has done an excellent job at interpreting our ideas and requests to produce an incredibly smart, well thought through and stylish design for our home. The way she has optimised a small foot print and available sunlight is fantastic. We've been very impressed with her knowledge of thermal effeciency and passive house principles which has resulted in a design which we are confident will be very comfortable, enjoyable and cost effective home to live in. Throughout the design process we have found Susanne to be very easy to work with and have really appreciated the collaborative relationship that has been fostered with ourselves as clients and also with our builder. We can really tell that Susanne has taken great pride in our project and that can be clearly seen in the quality of the final product.

Very professional, very responsive to our needs, always on time, great communication, and a beautiful, modern, affordable home design to meet our dream.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Susanne from initial concept design through to handover of my building consent. It has been a very long journey, which has gone very smoothly considering we started the design process within months of the February 2011 earthquake. Susanne pulled together the right professionals to consult and expertly navigated my project through the numerous city council stumbling blocks and endless requests for information. Thank you for listening to my requests and always checking back with me for clarity, I am sure this has made all the difference and saved us both a lot of time. It is so nice to be able to look at my building project and say, "I love it and you made my vision a reality"

Susanne Schade from Architecta was the architect for our new house. We have been living there for five months now. We are completely in love with our new hill house and really enjoy spending as much time as possible in it. It's very quiet and peaceful and supports our lifestyle and activities just as we had hoped it would. Susanne has perfectly balanced the window framing of the views leaving enough wall space for our art and photographs and the advice she gave us to achieve superior insulation and design efficiency is also just as we wanted. The two outdoor living spaces work well and their intelligent positioning has enhanced our enjoyment of the summer. We really appreciated the way she worked with us to realise the most important aspects of our brief and to enhance it beyond what we imagined. We felt she listened extremely well and was appropriately assertive about things she felt were important. The availability of the 3D modeling while in the planning stage helped us to better understand the plans as well. In fact we are so satisfied with the design that we plan on staying here for the rest of our days(!) - but if we were ever tempted to build again be assured Susanne would be our first choice of architect. Susanne was professional at all times and at the same time very approachable. She was always very prompt and efficient with deadlines. We appreciated the fact that the house design was in keeping with our indicated budget.

Susanne from Architecta immediately got the feel of our old house (which had to be demolished post-quake) and of our lifestyle, and designed a replacement that fitted us well. It was a pleasure to work with someone who shared our sustainability ideals and had a great depth of knowledge. We were immensely grateful for her professional support and guidance through all the aspects of the build, and would thoroughly recommend Architecta.