Bay of Plenty-based construction innovator Truss House has won the Growth and Scale Award at the 2026 Fieldays Innovation Awards, with recognition focused on a building system designed to create greater value from New Zealand timber through existing manufacturing infrastructure.
The award recognises Truss House’s patented portal frame building system, which combines floor, wall and roof structures into a single factory-manufactured timber frame. The system is produced through New Zealand’s existing network of frame and truss plants using MSG8 plantation pine, without the need for new factories, supply chains or specialist manufacturing skills.
Kim Aitken, co-founder and system creator of Truss House, says the award reflects the contribution of a wide range of industry participants.
“Innovation is never a solo activity. It’s always a team sport. This award represents engineers willing to think differently, manufacturers willing to experiment, builders willing to try something new, and partners excited to solve one of New Zealand’s most persistent problems.”
Pamela Aitken, co-founder of Truss House, says the business reflects a long-standing New Zealand approach to problem solving.
“Not with the resources of larger economies, but with resourcefulness, practical thinking, and a willingness to back ideas that start in workshops and factories rather than corporate boardrooms. Truss House is that tradition at work – a homegrown answer to one of the most pressing challenges of this generation, built from what New Zealand already has, and engineered to leave communities better off than it found them.”
The Truss House system addresses two connected challenges that have long affected New Zealand: the export of low-value commodity timber and a construction sector facing ongoing cost, labour and time pressures. By precision-engineering portal frames around the characteristics of MSG8 timber, the company says it can extract significantly more structural value from plantation-grown timber that would otherwise leave New Zealand as a commodity export.
According to Truss House, residential projects using the system can be completed in four to six weeks. The company says homes built using the system perform 55% better than New Zealand’s H1 minimum energy requirements while costing less than most code-minimum homes.
The system is licensed for a set period to Pryda, part of ITW Construction, one of New Zealand and Australia’s largest frame and truss suppliers. Each Truss House design is supplied with a PS1 producer statement, providing a verified structural basis for builders and councils from the start of a project.
Adam Dawson, engineering and builder solutions manager ANZ at Pryda, says the system offers a new approach to design, manufacture and construction.
“What attracted us to Truss House from the beginning was that it asks the industry to think differently – not to start again.
“Nothing comes close in terms of the efficiency to design, manufacture, and build. It’s the most significant advancement in offsite prefabrication since the invention of nailplated trusses themselves.”
The system is being brought to the consumer market through a partnership with the Bunnings New Zealand network, including the Bunnings Trade and Bunnings Clever Living Builder programmes. Showhomes are being developed from Invercargill to Whangārei, while the company’s granny flat range was launched at the Auckland and Wellington Bunnings Trade Expos in March 2026. Bunnings New Zealand is targeting more than 200 units nationwide.
Myles Whitcher, director of Pohutukawa Frame and Truss, which manufactures Truss House frames for the New Zealand market, says the system creates opportunities for existing frame and truss manufacturers to expand production without major capital investment.
“There’s no upfront capex, no need to set up a super-factory. With Truss House, we can diversify using the equipment we already have to produce engineered building systems at scale.”
Looking ahead, Truss House says its next phase includes further expansion across New Zealand, with a focus on larger homes, community and affordable housing projects, and multi-unit developments. The company is also continuing to expand in Australia, with Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Europe identified as future markets.
“We believe every family deserves access to warm, dry, healthy, resilient housing,” says Kim.
“We believe New Zealand can create more value from its timber resources. And we believe regional manufacturing has an important role to play in the future of our economy. This award is a step along that journey, but the work is just getting started.”