One of the founders of Lockwood Homes, Jo La Grouw, stands outside the company’s new EcoSmart house in Rotorua in March 2008. La Grouw and fellow Dutch immigrant Johannes (Jan) van Loghem founded the company in the early 1950s. Their first homes were built from native timber (heart mataī), but they soon began using radiata pine. In the 1950s there was not much choice in New Zealand housing – wooden cottages or brick-and-tile houses. Lockwood Homes used wood as both a construction material and a design feature. While they used more timber than traditional houses, the components were pre-cut, saving construction time. By the early 2000s more than 22,000 Lockwood houses had been built around New Zealand.