Rau is well known as an expert practitioner and senior educator in the field of Māori architecture and cultural landscape design.  

With over three decades experience in architecture and cultural landscape design, Rau is an advocate of careful planning for warm, safe, and culturally appropriate housing. He has broad expertise in working alongside Māori communities on projects including papakāinga housing where the hope is that these developments support their specific and wider cultural aspirations. 

Rau is a director of Design Tribe Architects, a director of Toi Ngāpuhi – the Ngāpuhi arts support and advocacy organisation, and is a lecturer and Māori Studio Director at Unitec School of Architecture.

In July, it was announced that the design of Te Kura o Te Whanau-a-Apanui in Te Kaha was recognised in the Bay of Plenty Architectural Designers New Zealand (ADNZ) Awards, winning the Bay of Plenty award for Commercial Architecture and also the Resene Kaitiakitanga Award. Rau Hoskins, together with our Kaihautū Dean Whiting, collaborated with DCA Architects and MOAA Architects as cultural advisors to the project.