Better conversations about concrete, carbon, durability, and design — now at High Performer Building.
Good buildings start with good conversations.
Not just once the drawings are finished. Not once a product is already on site. And definitely not when everyone is standing around trying to solve a problem that could have been avoided three months earlier.
The best conversations happen early, when architects, builders, clients and suppliers can look at material choices together and ask better questions.How will this product perform over time?
What does it mean for embodied carbon?
How easy is it to specify?
What support is available?
Can we see it, touch it, compare it, and understand how it will actually work in the build?
That is why Viblock has joined High Performer Building.
At Viblock, our purpose is simple: building a better New Zealand. That means supporting homes, landscapes and public spaces that are durable, well made, lower waste and designed to serve people for generations.
High Performer Building shares that same ambition. Through its Innovation Hub in Ellerslie, Auckland, it gives regulators, industry associations, designers, builders, quantity surveyors, developers and homeowners a place to discover products, ask better questions and have more useful conversations before key decisions are locked in.
For Viblock, that makes the partnership a natural fit.
We design and manufacture concrete bricks, concrete blocks, pavers and landscape products for the New Zealand market. Our products are made with craft, precision and care, but they are also made to be understood, specified and installed well.
Joining High Performer Building gives us another way to help the wider building industry have more useful conversations about concrete: what it can do, where it performs best, how its carbon story is changing, and how the right support can lead to better outcomes on site and over time.
Why High Performer Building is a natural fit for Viblock
Viblock has a manufacturing plant in Alexandra and a sales office and showroom in Christchurch.
Those places are central to who we are and how we work. Our Central Otago source materials, local manufacturing knowledge and South Island relationships have shaped the products we make today.
But Viblock is not only a South Island story.
We are supplying projects across New Zealand, and we know architects, builders and homeowners in the North Island need the same access to product information, samples and specification support.
That is where High Performer Building adds something valuable.
With Viblock now represented at the Auckland Innovation Hub, people can see our products in person, start a conversation, and get a better feel for what concrete bricks and blocks can bring to a project.
Samples can still be sent directly, and our team is always available to talk through options, but the hub gives Auckland-based architects, builders and clients a physical place to begin.
Sometimes that first conversation matters most.
A website can show a product. A sample can show colour and texture. But standing in front of a display and asking questions — about finish, format, installation, carbon, durability or maintenance — is often what turns product interest into specification confidence.
Building Pulse and the changing concrete conversation
High Performer Building is not just a product hub. It also runs Building Pulse, a platform designed to connect with the broader industry through videos, podcasts, newsletters and blogs. Building Pulse brings together experts, innovators and thought leaders to discuss the future of construction, sharing insights, trends and ideas that push the industry forward.
That matters because building products do not exist in isolation.
A concrete brick is not just a brick. A structural concrete block is not just a structural unit. A paver is not just a surface.
Each product sits inside a larger system of decisions: design intent, embodied carbon, transport, installation, waste, durability, maintenance and long-term value.
Building Pulse creates space for those wider conversations.
A recent Building Pulse conversation with Tim Kleier from Concrete NZ explored the changing carbon story of concrete, including clinker, cement production, supplementary cementitious materials, carbon capture, low-carbon steel and practical opportunities for better concrete design and specification.
For us, the most useful part of that discussion is not that concrete is perfect.
It is that the conversation is becoming more informed.
Concrete has a carbon footprint, and the industry needs to keep reducing it. But the material also has a performance story that deserves to be understood in full: durability, thermal mass, acoustic comfort, structural resilience, local manufacture, long service life and opportunities for lower-carbon innovation.
Better buildings need that level of detail.
As Tim Kleier puts it in this conversation:
“Everyone needs to be curious, engage positively with the material, and see it as an opportunity rather than a threat or a nuisance.”
From broad assumptions to useful questions
Concrete is often spoken about in broad strokes.
Strong, but carbon intensive.
Practical, but plain.
Durable, but not always design-led.
The reality is more nuanced.
Concrete NZ’s Roadmap to Net Zero Carbon Concrete sets out a pathway for the industry to reduce emissions, with a 2030 target and a longer-term goal of net zero carbon concrete by 2050.
That is a big industry shift. But it only becomes useful when it connects back to real project decisions.
- What materials are being compared?
- Where are they made?
- How are they transported?
- How much energy is used in production?
- How long will they last?
- How much maintenance will they need?
- How easy are they to install well?
- What happens at the end of its useful life?
These are the questions that help architects, builders and homeowners move past assumptions and towards better decisions.
Lower-carbon building is not achieved by one supplier working in isolation. It takes earlier conversations, better information and a willingness from the whole project team to ask what is possible before falling back on the default.
That is one of the reasons High Performer Building is such a valuable platform. It creates a place where those conversations can happen earlier, with the right people in the room.
Concrete bricks, carbon and long-term value
One clear example is the conversation around concrete bricks and clay bricks.
Clay has a long history in architecture, and it will continue to have its place. But clay bricks require high-temperature firing, which uses a significant amount of energy.
Concrete bricks cure differently.
Because concrete bricks cure at much lower temperatures than fired clay, they can carry a significantly lower embodied carbon profile — around 55% less for a standard New Zealand concrete brick compared with an imported clay brick.
That does not mean one material is right for every project.
It means the conversation needs to be more useful than “concrete bad, clay good” or “local good, imported bad”.
Good decisions depend on context: where the product is made, how it is transported, how it is installed, how long it lasts, how much maintenance it needs, and how it contributes to the overall performance of the building.
For Viblock, this is a practical conversation.
Concrete bricks and blocks can offer texture, tone, mass, durability and low maintenance, while also helping architects achieve a strong design outcome.
The material has a natural depth that changes with aggregate, finish and light. It can be honed, fluted, textured, split-face, rumbled or kept plain. It can be quiet and recessive, or it can do more of the design work.
That flexibility is part of the craft.
The other part is making sure the product performs.
From big-picture change to practical support
Big industry conversations matter, but they only help if they translate into better decisions on real projects.
That is why Viblock puts so much emphasis on support.
We work with architects, builders and homeowners to help make concrete products easier to understand, specify and install well. That includes product information, care guidance, technical resources, sample support and conversations around colour, finish and application.
Our Viblock Resources bring together practical guidance, project examples, technical information and design ideas for people considering concrete bricks, structural concrete blocks and landscape products.
Good decisions depend on context: where the product is made, how it is transported, how it is installed, how long it lasts, how much maintenance it needs, and how it contributes to the overall performance of the building.
For Viblock, this is a practical conversation.
Concrete bricks and blocks can offer texture, tone, mass, durability and low maintenance, while also helping architects achieve a strong design outcome.
The material has a natural depth that changes with aggregate, finish and light. It can be honed, fluted, textured, split-face, rumbled or kept plain. It can be quiet and recessive, or it can do more of the design work.
That flexibility is part of the craft.
The other part is making sure the product performs.
This is also where industry involvement matters.
Viblock works alongside wider industry resources from organisations such as Concrete NZ, Registered Master Landscapers and Master Brick & Blocklayers, helping connect product selection with good documentation and good workmanship.
That support reduces uncertainty. It also helps ensure the product people specify is the product they get the best from on site.
Because better building is not just about choosing the right material.
It is about choosing it early enough, detailing it properly, installing it well and understanding how it should be cared for over time.
For Viblock, this comes back to craft, precision and care.
Craft means giving designers more options through colour, aggregate, texture and finish.
Precision means producing consistent concrete products that help reduce waste and give installers more confidence on site.
Care means practical support before, during and after specification, from samples and technical guidance through to installation and aftercare advice.
Simple ideas. Big difference.
Te Mata House, an award-winning project by R B Studio, shows how concrete can support both architectural expression and long-term performance — grounding the home in its landscape through mass, durability and restraint.
What Viblock is bringing to High Performer Building
he Viblock display at High Performer Building features Pressed Stone and 450 Slim
They are two very different expressions of concrete, which is exactly why they work well together in the hub.
Pressed Stone is the result of an extensive research and development process. With 13 unique moulds designed to emulate the natural variation of stone, it creates a textured concrete system with strong architectural character.
It offers the permanence and depth people often look for in stone, with the consistency and efficiency of a manufactured concrete product.
450 Slim shows a different side of the range.
As Viblock’s slimmest brick proportion, 450 Slim has a long, low profile inspired by traditional Roman-style brickwork. It gives architects a refined way to use concrete brick across contemporary homes and architectural projects, bringing rhythm, restraint and a more linear expression to walls and facades.
Together, Pressed Stone and 450 Slim show two sides of Viblock.
Pressed Stone speaks to texture, depth and permanence.
450 Slim speaks to proportion, rhythm and restraint.
Both give people a reason to look again at concrete.
Not as a fallback. Not as a grey default. Not as something to hide.
But as a crafted, durable and design-led material that can contribute to buildings made for New Zealand conditions.
Better conversations, better buildings
he construction industry does not need more noise.
It needs better conversations between the people regulating, designing, supplying, installing and living with our buildings.
That is why High Performer Building matters. It brings products, people and ideas together in a way that helps the industry learn, compare and ask sharper questions.
It is also why Viblock is proud to be part of it.
Our plant in Alexandra, our Christchurch sales office and showroom, and our Central Otago source materials all remain part of the story. But as Viblock grows nationally, we want it to be easier for people across New Zealand to see, understand and specify our products with confidence.
High Performer Building helps make that possible in Auckland.
Visit the High Performer Building Innovation Hub to see the Viblock display, explore Pressed Stone and 450 Slim in person, and start a better conversation about concrete, carbon, durability and design.
Or speak with the Viblock team directly. We can talk through your project, send samples, provide product information and help you make confident decisions early in the design process.
Because better buildings are rarely the result of one big decision.
They are built through many good conversations, held early enough to make a difference.
Call us on 0800 842 562 or contact us through our website.
Further reading and resources