Farewell to a founder of Tektus

It's been six months since, in September 2023, we sadly bid farewell to one of our company's founding fathers, Dr David Turner .

Born and raised in Ōtepoti Dunedin in the 1940s, David spent his high school and university years in England, developing his wide-ranging and enviable skills to become an architect, urban planner and university lecturer. This led to a positive decade spent in Bath, UK, through the 80s, bringing both his first son, Jack Turner , and his burgeoning architectural practice, Tektus, into the world.

In the mid-90s, David and his wife, Dr Elizabeth Turner, moved his family back to Aotearoa New Zealand, and helped establish the new architectural school at Unitec in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. While David left his practice, behind in the hands of Philip Fawkner-Corbett in Bath, thankfully he brought Jack with him - together with the spirit of Tektus. David taught thousands of architecture students at Unitec throughout his 50s, 60s, and 70s, and died unexpectedly but peacefully at home, in front of his drawing board, at the age of 80. Throughout that time, he inspired new generations of architects, but also, somehow, two civil engineers in the form of his sons - Jack and Toby Turner . Jack and Toby are now both well-respected chartered engineers working in the water sector, with Jack based in Auckland and Toby, in Brisbane, Australia.

In 2015, Jack and his wife Dana Turner were inspired to start their own practice based out of Auckland - this time focusing on engineering, planning and environmental disciplines, and out of coincidence, Phil in Bath had just stopped trading as Tektus in 2014. Tektus UK had been bought-out by Stride Treglown in 2008, dropping the Tektus name 6 years later, and Phil was kind enough to endorse Jack restarting Tektus on the other side of the world, albeit with a new-found focus.

Today, Jack and (since 2018) his business partner Emily Afoa carry-on David's legacy for sustainable design and better outcomes for us all, through Tektus NZ, now with a wonderful team of 20+ professionals and based out of offices in Wynyard Quarter - Te Piringa o Tektus. Luckily, David was able to see our shift into our new offices last year, and was proud of the place and space we're creating.

We are forever grateful to David for his vision, kindness and never-wavering support throughout his life - to us, and to the thousands of people the world-over whom he positively impacted with his work. He was and will continue to be an inspiration for many.

David was a prolific researcher, particularly in his later years and building off his PhD research on medium density housing in Aotearoa. In his honour, we link his final research paper, published in late 2023, after his passing - Intensifying Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland: Some Higher-Density Housing Outcomes After the Adoption of the Auckland Unitary Plan of 2016; with this broader Asylum publication dedicated to David, and a tribute to him from his colleagues, including Dr Renata Jadresin Milic - linked as follows:

https://www.unitec.ac.nz/epress/index.php/asylum-2023-volume-2-4-4/

And to end our tribute and farewell to David, we reflect on Carl Sagan's poem, the Pale Blue Dot - which was the inspiration behind our subtle new logo update for Tektus in 2015, with the addition of our own pale blue dot. In this poem, Sagan was inspired by an image taken, at his suggestion, by Voyager 1 on 14 February 1990 - looking through Saturn's rings towards planet earth, which could be seen as a tiny blue dot - like a drop of water.

... We succeeded in taking that picture, and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. ... To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

With love.