Ockham Residential

Reimagining Urban Communities.

That's our mission in a sentence. Reverence for Aotearoa, our land, infuses our work.

It’s an ambitious goal, herculean really, but we strive to make thoughtful, distinctively residential buildings that are as beautiful as the landscapes we enjoy in Aotearoa. We believe housing is essential infrastructure – the building blocks of community – and our built environment belongs to us all.

We call ourselves ‘urban regenerators’: we want to play our part in making a new, dynamic New Zealand work, perhaps even inspire a few up-and-coming developers along the way. But beyond our buildings, it always comes back to people – to our ambition to bring a vibrant urban lifestyle to as many people and communities as we can.

We’re a vertically integrated business which is a fancy way of saying we do it all. We imagine our buildings, design them, do all project managing and consents stuff – and then Ockham Construction does the hard yakka on the ground.

Here at Ockham, we’re committed to creating beautiful, thoughtful and long-lasting buildings. To achieve that, we need to have an exceptional construction team making sure every aspect of the building is perfect from the ground up.

Under the expert management of Will Deihl and Ben Gibbens, Ockham Construction has completed 246 stunning apartments – 119 across three buildings at Tuatahi; 32 at Modal; 95 at Kokihi, and they are currently putting the finishing touches on a further 32 apartments at Star Newton.

Not ones to rest on their laurels, the team – which was expanded to 50 fulltime staff – is currently hard at work on five impressive new projects sprouting up around Tāmaki Makaurau – Aroha, The Greenhouse, Manaaki, Aalto and Koa Flats.

“There’s a huge advantage to being a genuinely vertically integrated development, design and construction business,” says Will, our Chief Operating Officer of Construction. “We’re really nimble. We can go from the land acquisition and design concept phase through to the construction phase in a very streamlined way.

“Our in-house architectural team benefit from having a construction team there who can provide expert cost and buildability advice throughout the design development, which makes for a much smoother and less risky construction phase. And, of course, we benefit hugely from the quick response to any of our design queries. This is particularly important for Ockham as all of our designs are stunning, extraordinary and detailed.”

Project director Ben Gibbens agrees that having early access to project designs is integral to Ockham Construction’s success, particularly during a time of global supply chain issues.

“We have real visibility into all of the projects Ockham has on the horizon. This, in turn, provides assurance to our construction partners that they can rely on us to continue to provide a consistent flow of work. We have strong long-term relationships with all of our subcontractors. Because we trust them as our partners, and work with them time and again, we’re confident that they are always working tirelessly on our behalf with their own suppliers to mitigate any price increases.”

Ben says having everyone inhouse also cuts through a lot of irritating red tape. “The construction industry has long been very contractual and adversarial. Because we’re all on the same team at Ockham, we spend more time improving our design and construction methods, and less time on the contractual nonsense that slows up the industry, which means work is much more enjoyable!”

As such, Ockham Construction are lucky enough to have a number of staff who have been with the company since Tuatahi was built, including Will and Ben. There are also a few other standouts including Ockham’s gregarious Glyn Ussher, who is presently managing the gate at Aroha.

“He’s such a great member of the team,” Will says. “He’s been on the gate at Tuatahi, Modal and Kokihi. People in the community we’re working in all start to recognise Glyn. He always ends up being the face of Ockham Construction. He’s super friendly, kind and always up for a chat. We always get loads of really good feedback about him.”

Another member of staff, Ricardo Dias Vilam has worked his way up to site supervisor after starting at Ockham as a labourer on Tuatahi. “His first promotion was from labourer to crane operator,” says Ben. “He’s just finished training another staff member to take over on the crane. He’s very smart and has amazing attention to detail. We’re lucky to have him on site.”