Our Team

Our team is made up of dedicated professionals, each with a strong passion for design and a commitment to delivering quality results. From architects to designers, we work together seamlessly to bring your vision to life. As proud Kiwis, we take pride in our local values of hard work, collaboration, and innovation to ensure every project is completed to the highest standard.

Phil Smith

Founder and Director

Tiffany Smith

Co-Founder and General Manager

Akash Kumar

Senior Architect

Michael Wang

Lead Senior Architectural Designer

Madeline Woodd

Senior Architectural Designer

Felix Wang

Architectural Designer

Shonika Shayal

Architectural Designer

Harry Mills

Architectural Graduate

Samein Ferguson

Architectural Graduate

Dominique Benavides

Marketing and Administration Coordinator

Kane Le’au-Anderson

Architectural Graduate

Ann Wang

Architectural Graduate

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Phil Smith

Founder and Director

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Phil is the Founder and Director of Smith Architects and he leads the practice’s sustainable design. Phil studied at De Montfort University, Leicester England, gaining a BA honours degree in 1996 and a Graduate Diploma with Distinction in 2000. Phil became registered with ARB and RIBA in 2001 and achieved a further Post Graduate Diploma in Practice Management in the same year. Phil is a Registered Architect in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, a member of the New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA), the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), and the Design Institute of New Zealand (DINZ).

Upon graduating in 2000, Phil was invited to join Foster and Partners, where he followed his passion for sustainable design, working on prestigious environmental projects such as the Hearst Tower, New York’s first ‘LEED’ Gold-rated office building and leading the design of several City Academies, low-energy high school buildings, the first of their kind in the UK. While at Foster and Partners he also designed Z2, a concept scheme for a new city quarter of London achieving zero carbon and zero waste, which helped form the criteria for the sustainable initiatives of the London Olympics.

In 2006 Phil emigrated to New Zealand seeking a more sustainable life. In 2007 he established his own practice with the sole purpose of creating beautiful human spaces. He completed his own sustainable home in Auckland and was invited to be an assessor for the NZ Green Building Council (NZGBC). In 2008 he was appointed as their technical adviser, leading the team who created NZ’s first Green Star Education rating tool. Phil then designed the NZGBC office to a 5 Green Star Interiors Rating in 2015. In 2019 he became a qualified NZGBC Homestar practitioner and in 2021 he was invited to join the NZGBC Advisory Board.

In Spring of 2012, Phil and Tiffany joined with Graham Collingridge in the UK to form Collingridge and Smith Architects (CASA) to build on their collective expertise and take the first steps towards a global practice. In 2022, the practice then evolved to Smith Architects.
Phil continues to innovate in sustainable design, with his design for the Te Mirumiru Early Childhood Centre receiving 11 international and national awards, culminating in 2014 with the World Green Building Council’s Leadership in Sustainable Design Award, the only building in the whole of the Asia Pacific region to receive such a title.

Under Phils guidance, Smith Architects has strived to produce beautiful, sustainable spaces, with the practice completing over 100 early childhood centre designs in 4 different countries, winning 30 international and national awards to date. In 2020 the practice completed its first Early Childhood Centre in Australia, which has been certified as a Living Building Challenge building, possibly the highest ‘green’ building standard in the world.

Tiffany Smith

Co-Founder and Chief Value Officer

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Tiffany is the Co-Owner and Chief Value Officer of Smith Architects, leading the practice’s research design agenda.

Tiffany is a chartered accountant through the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration with Distinction from Otago University in New Zealand.

Tiffany is passionate about understanding the influence of our built environment on our wellbeing and development. This has led to a research partnership being established with the University of Auckland and Massey University New Zealand in 2016, with Tiffany completing her Master of Philosophy in Science, researching how well our buildings support wellbeing.

Prior to joining Smith Architects full time in 2015, Tiffany was also the Corporate Sustainability Manager for Chorus New Zealand and achieved a Ministry for the Environment Green Ribbon award and a Project Litefoot Shield in 2013 and 2014 respectively. Before Chorus and Spark New Zealand demerged, Tiffany was the Corporate Sustainability Manager for Spark and prior to this, she was the Decision Support Manager for Spark Wholesale Capital Investment. She joined Spark after returning to New Zealand from the UK where she spent eight years.

While in the UK, she was a Financial Business Consultant for Shell Oil International and the Shell Marine Finance Manager for the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Russia. Other roles included Project Accountant at Worldcom UK, Financial Analyst/Systems Accountant at World Telecom UK and a number of finance roles with Stocklink Distribution New Zealand in the late 90s.

Tiffany returned to New Zealand in 2006 seeking a more sustainable life, establishing the practice with Phil Smith in 2007, and completing their own sustainable home in Auckland later that same year.

Akash Kumar

Architect

Akash is a registered architect and Urban Designer at Smith Architects. He studied at Unitec, gaining a Bachelor of Architecture in 2015, and has completed his Master of Architecture (Professional) and Urban Design qualifications from the University of Auckland in 2019.

He entered his Masters Urban Design project ‘Toitu Kāinga: The Home of the Sustainer’ into the DINZ 2019 Best Awards student spatial and public good category, gaining a silver and bronze award for his innovative and sustainable community design project.

Akash’s architectural journey is influenced by his Indian heritage and upbringing in Aotearoa. His thesis, ‘In Search of My Bindu: A Place to Stand’, investigated the Hindu and Māori cultures to create a place, Bindu, for New Zealand-Indians. The word ‘Bindu’ means the centre of the universe, home or place of belonging. He found the two cultures shared strong similarities as his findings revealed a total of fifteen ways the architectural language could be expressed and communicated across both cultures. Using these learnings, he was able to develop an architectural language to design a community centre which was of a hybrid Hindu and Māori Architecture. He applied the spiritual process to his design because he strongly believes that you also develop the energy in the space when you design the building. This thesis went on to win Bronze at the DINZ 2020 Best Design Awards in the Public Good and Toitanga categories. Silver at the International Design Awards 2020 in three categories, Architecture Mix-Use Architectural Design, Architecture Urban Design, and Architecture – Landmarks, symbolic structure, memorials, public.

He is a great believer in Muhammad Ali’s quote about champions. Especially the last line, which reads ‘But the will must be stronger than the skill’. No matter what the skill set, greatness can be achieved by drive, desire, and determination.

Since joining the practice full-time, Akash’s highly motivated approach to life has made him a great addition to our team. His key interest in powerful community and urban spaces reflects his personal vision of creating sustainable architecture for our past, present, and future generations.

“We design spaces, and spaces design us.” – Akash Kumar

Michael Wang

Senior Architectural Designer

Michael is a Senior Architectural Designer at Smith Architects.

Michael studied at the University of Auckland, gaining a Bachelor of Architectural Studies in 2016 and a Master of Architecture (Professional) with honours in 2018. In 2019 Michael became a qualified Homestar Assessor.

Since joining the team at the beginning of 2019, Michael’s skills and contributions have made him a valuable member of our team, particularly in conceptual design. Michael’s architectural interests lean broadly towards both domestic and commercial scales, with a focus on urban design and community. His final year thesis was a large housing complex nestled within the existing structures of an abandoned stadium in Christchurch; reintegrating a historic site back to the public and urban landscape, and in 2019 Michael won a Gold Pin at the DINZ Best Awards for this project.

He’s a creative, cheerful and curious person who enjoys working with people driven by architecture and is a great fit to our strong team-oriented design firm.

Madeline Woodd

Senior Architectural Designer

Madeline is a Senior Architectural Designer dedicated to creating thoughtful and equitable spaces. She began her architectural journey at Victoria University of Wellington, where she earned her Bachelor of Architectural Studies, before completing her Master’s degree in architecture at Auckland University.

Madeline’s research focused on the intersection between architecture and whenua, exploring how people can experience the land deeply and spiritually through architectural intervention. Her thesis criticized the current approach to tourism architecture, which she believes can be a colonizing view of the land. Instead, she proposed an immersive and respectful experience for the user that takes into account the cultural and ecological significance of the land. This research cemented her commitment to creating spaces that are not only functional and beautiful but also culturally and environmentally sensitive.

Madeline is excited to work on projects that reflect this philosophy and make a positive impact on people’s lives through her work.

Madeline joined Smith Architects in May 2022 with prior experience in bespoke housing and large-scale multi-housing developments. Through her determination and dedication in Oct 2023, Madeline was promoted to Senior Architectural Designer. At Smith, Madeline is enjoying working through a range of housing projects as well as getting the opportunity to work on some exciting, more bespoke-type projects while experiencing all phases of the design and consenting process.

Felix Wang

Architectural Designer

Felix is an Architectural Designer at Smith Architects and began his architectural journey at Auckland University, where he earned his Bachelor of Architectural Studies and his Master’s degree in architecture.

Shonika Shayal

Architectural Designer

Shonika is an Architectural Designer at Smith Architects and began her architectural journey at Auckland University, where she earned her Bachelor of Architectural Studies and her Master’s degree in architecture.

Harry Mills

Architectural Graduate

Harry studied at Victoria University of Wellington where he gained a Bachelor of Architectural Studies in 2021 and a Master of Architecture (Professional) in 2024.

His academic focus delved deeply into the intersection of politics, economics and architecture. Through his research, he critically examined the current practices in architecture, arguing that too much emphasis is placed on economic goals at the expense of social and environmental considerations. His thesis specifically evaluated the prevailing approach in architecture, advocating for a shift towards prioritising the human experience and integrating social and environmental factors more prominently into architectural design. This perspective reflects Harry’s belief that a reorientation of architectural priorities could lead to more beneficial outcomes for society as a whole.

Harry is enthusiastic about applying his philosophical approach to real-world projects. He seeks opportunities to create spaces that harmoniously blend aesthetics with social responsibility, aiming to contribute meaningfully to both human well-being and environmental sustainability.

Samein Ferguson

Architectural Graduate

Sam is an Architectural Designer at Smith Architects. Sam studied at Victoria University of Wellington where he gained his Bachelor’s degree in Architecture in 2021, followed by his Master’s degree (Professional) with honours in 2023.

His final year thesis focused on investigating how architectural housing and the natural landscape can engage in mutual and contextual dialogues with one another to foster stronger connections between the built and natural environments. The site situating these housing experiments was within the Christchurch Port Hills, an area that Sam was brought up in and knows thoroughly. This research expanded Sam’s curiosity and creativity, as it encouraged innovative thinking and thought provoking architectural narrative.

Dominique Benavides

Marketing and Administration Coordinator

Kane Le’au-Anderson

Architectural Graduate

Ann Wang

Architectural Graduate