David Wright

Holistic thinking drives David’s approach to architecture, but he takes it to a whole different level. He naturally considers any new building within the context of its neighbourhood, but also its moment on a timeline that stretches back to the early occupants of Aotearoa and forward 100 years to a dynamic landscape impacted by climate change and other universal factors.
Resilience of the built environment is important anywhere but perhaps more personal in Hawke’s Bay where David has headed the RTA Studio team since 2020. A graduate of the University of Auckland, his path to this career was mapped as a seven-year-old, when an architect laid out sub-division plans on the family dining room table and talked through the process and design.
A sojourn in Sydney with Architectus gave him a layered understanding of the intricate urban fabric and how buildings can impact public consciousness. These learnings he has translated to key projects in the region, such as the Portside Precinct in Ahuriri and the development of the MTG Museum Archive where artefacts and taonga are securely stored for generational connection.
His experience spans projects within the retail, commercial, institutional and recreational realm, daily touchpoints on a professional and personal level. While he brings big-city ambition to his role, he wraps it in a cognisance of local community and an awareness of how fragile and evolving the environment is.
When he’s not hanging out with his young family, David can be found on his mountain bike, or fishing, or cheering from the sidelines of the hockey field - basically, lapping up the lifestyle working in this beautiful part of the country offers.

 “Climate change is here - and we need to be addressing it. RTA Studio’s values tie into this approach.”