“What was once a product conversation has become a solution conversation,” says Hugh McGaveston, Managing Director of Boundaryline. “Making fencing easy is what we’ve stood for since we started the business in 2009. That used to mean having the fencing products that our customers wanted, but it has since evolved to include how we’re supporting architects and designers successfully implement our products as well.”

Boundaryline offers the largest fencing and gate range in the New Zealand market. Their customer-led approach enables Hugh and the team to provide innovative, complete solutions for a wide range of projects, nationwide. “At the core of our business is a direct relationship with a multitude of small and medium enterprises - fencing installers, landscapers, builders, architects and landscape architects. Because we work directly with them, we have the benefit of quite close relationships with players across the industry. Every decision that affects our business starts with a human being; we make sure we never forget to treat our customers that way.”

An unwavering commitment to both their customers and the wider New Zealand industry underpins everything that Boundaryline does. Hugh has been solidifying these relationships through a recent series of networking events with a focus on medium-density housing (MDH), a space in which he says Boundaryline has been playing for a number of years. “After the Christchurch Earthquakes, some of the larger home-building companies expressed an appetite for rebuilding faster through medium-density housing; there were some pioneers that we worked with pretty closely at the forefront of those discussions. Adoption of medium-density housing in New Zealand has been growing, but we’ve always taken a long-term perspective of the opportunities it presents.”

Fencing plays a critical, but not always obvious, role in accelerating New Zealand’s adoption of medium-density housing. “Fencing can be a blind spot for the architectural industry. As we often say, it is the first thing you see, but the last thing you think about. It’s often not specified clearly or in an achievable way by the designer, or it gets left to the construction company to make up a solution at the end of the project, which can result in bad outcomes due to budget shortfalls. At our MDH networking events, we had important, multi-disciplinary conversations with architects, landscape architects, developers and construction companies about the impact of fencing, helping them see how layered it is and the outsized impact these decisions can make. By the end of those conversations, we often see a paradigm shift in thinking. With medium-density housing, your fence is your friend, and once we’ve shown them the difference between good fencing and bad fencing, they can’t unsee it.”

Boundaryline is supporting these discussions with the recent release of Volume 2 of their Medium-Density Housing Magazine. “It features insightful interviews with industry players and presents an opportunity to flesh out this conversation around medium-density and how it’s changing the face of New Zealand’s housing typology. Most of the rest of the world has been living this way for generations already while, in New Zealand, medium-density housing has been considered a second-tier option. But there are a lot of positives. If you want convenience, to downsize, or to have a built-in community, medium-density is a great option. It provides the opportunity to recreate the town-square dynamic that we’ve lost in many of our suburbs by offering shared common spaces and facilities. Medium-density done well is about building communities. The quarter-acre dream faded in late ‘80s and early ‘90s; this is the new way of living and we need to embrace it.”

The year ahead will be one of continued relationship-building. “The MDH networking events have given us a great opportunity to better connect with industry face-to-face. Our customers get out of bed for the same reasons I do, and I can appreciate the opportunities and obstacles they’re facing. As colleagues and as business owners, we’re all weathering some challenging times. Since COVID, as a business community, we’re having much more open conversations. I enjoy meeting the industry to have meaningful discussions and keeping an eye on the future. There’s plenty to be optimistic about.

“We love talking to industry and finding opportunities to have a conversation. We’re focusing on industry feedback this year to find ways that we can adapt, be more efficient and bring some exciting new products to market. So much of what we do and what we’ve developed has come out of conversations with clients and designers who have a challenge to overcome. Chances are, if they’re having that challenge, they’re not the only one and we’re excited to use our resources to bring the industry solutions that make sense for their needs.”

To learn more and connect with Hugh, visit the Boundaryline website, follow them on LinkedIn, or request a copy of Medium-Density Housing Magazine, Volume 2 here.