We were founded in 2018 by Wanaka based serial entrepreneur Peter Marshall who was a co-founder of EFTPOS NZ, founder of Tallon Systems and is a successful property developer. As an entrepreneur Peter has had recognition at the highest levels having been awarded a category winner in the NZ Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards and received the internationally prestigious IBEX Marine Innovation Award. Peter has had a long-held belief that the building construction model in New Zealand is substantially overpriced, inefficient and generates large amounts of waste. Simply, there just has to be a better way of doing things and so began the genesis of Nautilus Modular and its quest to bring an innovative solution to building in New Zealand. 

Clearly the housing market in New Zealand is significantly challenged, due to affordability, shortage of housing supply and challenges with consenting processes, amongst other drivers. While we can’t influence some of these elements, we have a belief that the opportunity exists to deploy an integrated production system that utilises off-site manufacturing (OSM), creates efficiencies in the supply chain model and reduces waste where possible, all the while producing quality housing quickly. 

We didn’t want to reinvent the wheel and OSM is commonplace in New Zealand and in other parts of the world, so we started looking at what people were doing in other countries. We became inspired by modular designs and simple production methods from Europe and recognised we could generate a model that could be applied to New Zealand. So a small team of passionate and talented professionals were assembled to develop a fully integrated system that encompassed all elements of production, transport and installation into a simplistic, efficient package. We also wanted to ensure the buildings reflected high levels of liveability and so we have spent considerable time looking at insulation materials, energy efficiency, air quality and durability of materials and of course the end product. Finally, we wanted this production system to be scalable and capable of producing thousands of modules per annum, so developing the capability to mass produce was crucial to our efforts. 

What we have produced is a combination of “something old, something new, something borrowed” and we think it’s a good marriage of collective thinking.

We have developed a simple building system, where innovative thinking has been applied to all elements of design, materials, production and the development of an efficient supply chain strategy. This has pushed our team and partner suppliers to the limits and beyond. Many suppliers have developed new product or methods of production just to supply Nautilus Modular and without them, this wouldn’t have been possible. Many of our supply partners share our vision and goals and have stepped up and when you have a vision this big, you need others to come on board and join the quest for change.

Our brand was developed as the Nautilus has great similarities to our product offering. The Nautilus shell has two main layers and is beautifully curved and shaped. It is made up of chambers, just like our modules and the shell extends as the Nautilus grows bigger and makes more chambers, just like our buildings. The Nautilus is an animal who makes beautiful structures and takes building a shelter to the next level. We take inspiration from the Nautilus and nature in general and try to emulate the very best features of one of the world's most brilliant creators of a shelter.