How a professor helped rethink earthquake engineering

When Professor Pierre Quenneville arrived in New Zealand from Canada, earthquakes were not front of mind.

A timber engineering specialist at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, his work focused on structural design and timber connections. For most of his career, he saw himself as a researcher rather than an entrepreneur.

That changed after the Canterbury earthquakes.

Witnessing the scale of damage and disruption prompted a question that would eventually lead to the seismic solution company Tectonus: could buildings be designed not just to survive earthquakes, but to remain functional afterwards?

Traditional earthquake engineering focuses on protecting lives. Buildings are often designed to absorb damage during a major seismic event, which can leave owners facing costly repairs, lengthy closures, or even demolition.

Tectonus, of which Quenneville is a co-founder, was created to address that problem. The company’s seismic devices allow buildings to move during an earthquake and then return to their original position, reducing damage and downtime. The technology can be used in timber, steel and concrete structures, as well as retrofits of existing buildings.

The venture emerged from University research and gained early momentum through Velocity, the entrepreneurship programme run by the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE). Tectonus went on to win the Velocity $100k Challenge in 2015, while UniServices provided commercialisation support, investment and advisory expertise as the company moved from research concept to market opportunity.

For Quenneville, learning entrepreneurship later in his career meant adapting to regulations, commercial realities, international markets and unexpected opportunities.

“Our most recent challenge has been navigating tariffs in the United States. For steel, it’s 50 percent. Most of our parts are manufactured overseas, shipped to Auckland, assembled and tested here, and then sent to wherever the site is.”

Tectonus now employs more than a dozen people, with projects well beyond New Zealand.

One recent milestone is The Hive in Vancouver, a ten-storey timber building that Quenneville describes as “the world’s tallest all-timber building within a seismic system”. The company is also progressing a major retrofit project in Los Angeles, where its technology has undergone California’s rigorous approval process.

Quenneville believes New Zealand’s strength lies not only in earthquake engineering research, but in implementation. Building standards allow innovative approaches to be tested and adopted, while a less litigation-driven environment can make engineers more willing to move beyond established solutions.

Closer to home, Tectonus technology has been used in projects including Nelson Airport and the award-winning retrofit of 66 Oxford Terrace in Christchurch, helping improve seismic resilience while extending the life of existing buildings.  

Despite growing international demand, Quenneville continues to balance entrepreneurship with academic research.

His current work focuses on timber structures and new resilient connection systems, including projects led by doctoral students. The common thread remains finding ways to help structures recover after an earthquake rather than simply endure one.

The experience has reinforced his belief that researchers have an important role to play in solving real-world problems.

Looking ahead, Tectonus is focused on growing its presence in Canada and the United States while continuing to support projects in New Zealand and other earthquake-prone regions.

For Quenneville, the goal remains consistent with the question that inspired the venture: how to make buildings, and the people who rely on them, safer.