Will Tatton Talking about design www.willtatton.co.nz

Discussion on the process of design is actually quite difficult to encourage – even when architects and architectural designers get together, other topics seem to take over.

The design process involves bringing together inspiration from personal experiences when looking for a solution to a specific need.

Websites help find examples of ideas already developing in the mind. They're not being copied, they just illustrate a point in a useful way.

Websites are great to refer to, as often it is easy to visit a site together with someone to further explain or 'grow' a design idea.

I find I share names of sites to stimulate design discussion. For example MoCoLoCo.com is good, and also designdaily.co.nz

Architecture competitions encourage dialogue about design. I'd never entered design competitions before, so I was surprised to win two on my first effort recently. Since then, I'm intrigued by the number of people who saw a newspaper article about it and have made positive comments. The conversation it has prompted about why I design, and how I went about doing something, have been good dialogue about design itself, which is actually quite rare. I'd certainly encourage people to compare themself with others in their chosen field through entering design competitions – it starts discussion on things you care about.

The first award I won was for best house design over 250m2 in the Bay of Plenty for 2010 for a house at 18 Rita Street, Mount Maunganui. This is a modern mini-tower of four storeys with a hollow core, criss-crossing stairs and bridges, and glass atrium above.

The second award is for best multi unit dwelling in the Bay of Plenty for 2010. At 415 Oceanbeach Road, Mount Maunganui this is an innovative approach to beachside living. An external skin is formed from double height outdoor rooms with 6m motorised louvres that slide and pivot, and opening roof louvres too. The idea is to create a tropical zone so when the glass sliding walls (on the next layer in) are opened, the house feels enormous. It's like having a full grown palm tree in your living room!

The competition was organised by Architectual Designers NZ (ADNZ). I am impressed with this organisation. They are very genuine about improving the design of building in NZ. Visit www.adnz.org.nz