“When I arrived in Auckland from Toronto five years ago, I ran into a lot of brick walls,” says Peter Raimondo, Teulo MC and Senior Building Enclosure Engineer and Associate Director at Oculus. “I found that many in the New Zealand industry were reluctant to adopt new ideas or build differently. That inspired me to develop a separate part of my career that focussed on educating the building community, which I’ve done now for two seasons with my podcast 20 Degree. That’s how Janelle from Teulo first found me.”
Since then, Peter has been working with Teulo as MC for the popular Teulo Ed webinar series, as well as select Teulo Talks and Teulo Live events. “The thing that makes Teulo’s sessions so interesting is that industry people and suppliers are providing the content, but not just to feature their products or as a mechanism to make sales. They are offering a deeper dive into a concept and how something works. This provides a basis that participants can use to go on and do some additional research, as well as a forum for industry professionals to meet each other and ask important questions.”
Asking challenging questions is a key part of all aspects of Peter’s work, he says. “When I entered the New Zealand industry, I found that I was often asking questions in design meetings that had never been asked before. Rather than just listing aspirational goals, I was driving for specifics about what each project was trying to achieve. I believe that, if you don’t have a tangible goal, you’ll never get there. You need to set numbers and values to it and put real parameters around your expectations. This approach also helps the whole industry to think more long-term about durability. You might believe you can’t afford something in the initial build, but if you look at the lifetime numbers of the building, you can quickly see how a bit more spent now can save a lot down the road.”
“When I arrived in Auckland from Toronto five years ago, I ran into a lot of brick walls”
Peter’s outlook on the industry and his inquisitive, data-driven approach were informed by his experience growing up and working as a designer in Canada. “I’m used to an environment with a lot of snow, where annual temperatures can range from 35 degrees down to -35 degrees. In those conditions, if you’ve designed something badly, you’ll find out very quickly. When I turned up here with that lens, I was quite shocked at the standard of buildings I found. In Canada, black mould is a justification for breaking your lease; in New Zealand, it’s just expected. No one is dying if you design a substandard building here, but they can still slowly become quite unhealthy in that environment.
“Ultimately, my role is to design things that successfully separate the inside from the outside and provide a warm, comfortable, healthy environment for occupants. I gained a lot of hands-on design experience with this in Toronto, repelling off buildings, poking and spraying them to find leaks and condensation, and learning how to repair them without that happening again. Since arriving in New Zealand, I’ve worked primarily with new builds, collaborating with design teams and mechanical engineers. But as the building industry and the markets shift, I’m taking on more work in the renovation and remediation space.”
As Teulo’s MC, Peter is fostering cross-pollination and keeping the industry community engaged through events that are changing the way that building professionals view the CPD process. “Historically, I’ve been in a lot of webinars and presentations where it just drags on, and CPD conferences where you have one keynote speaker talking at a fairly surface level in order to sell their products. Teulo Ed is changing this model with events that feature four insightful presentations from a range of industry professionals, followed by a deep, facilitated discussion. Everyone has a chance to learn something that they didn’t know, and they can do so flexibly from their home or workspace. My part of those events, I hope, is bringing the fun. I bring a casual vibe with some jokes and good questions. I also have first-hand knowledge of some of the challenges that architects and designers face, and I bring that context to each session.
“My favourite events so far have been about Passive House. Participants at these events - regardless of how much background knowledge they might have coming in - leave really excited about the potential. The speakers we’ve featured on this topic are extremely knowledgeable and can provide great tips and tricks to navigate what can be a complicated process. The audience questions and feedback are usually great for those events.”
Peter is excited to move into his first home in Auckland in a couple of months and to bring his experiences as an enclosure engineer into his own space. “I’ve been renting up until now, so having an apartment of my own where I can make some real design changes is quite exciting. I’d love to do an Enerfit installation, which is basically just Passive House for an existing building. I look forward to seeing how much I’ll be able to do with the space.” He’s also optimistic about a third season of the 20 Degree podcast. “Our first season focused on building concepts like condensation and indoor air quality. The second was an in-depth but informal discussion about the nitty gritty of the New Zealand Building Code and all of its clauses. I’m not sure when my co-host, Jon, and I will be able to connect and finish season three, but I’m hopeful that we’ll get that out later this year.”
In the meantime, Peter says he’s keeping busy with more Oculus buildings and more webinars with Teulo. “More discussions, more buildings, more fun - that’s what’s on deck for 2024. People are spending differently because of rising interest rates and I’m sure there will be some who are really feeling the pinch, but businesses that can be fairly agile will definitely weather the storm. I’m eager to see how the market adapts; it’s changed a lot even in the five years I’ve been here. A lot of people still feel like enclosure engineering is disrupting that indoor-outdoor flow that I know Kiwis love. I do, too, during the summer, but it’s my job to give occupants the option to close the outside out during the rest of the year without having to worry about condensation or cold. You should be able to have both.
“My best advice, especially for younger and emerging industry professionals, is to go see the world. Go and party and meet people and have a great time, and then walk around and fully experience the built environment overseas. Explore and learn what it feels like in buildings in other parts of the world.”
To learn more and connect with Peter, email him at peter@oculusltd.co.nz, follow him on LinkedIn or sign up for an upcoming Teulo Ed event.
