Speakers
Kaikōrero
Partner, JAKOB+MACFARLANE
Born in New Zealand, Brendan MacFarlane received his Master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and graduated from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc).
In 1998, he and Dominique Jakob co-founded Jakob+MacFarlane, a multidisciplinary, multicultural practice based in Paris whose innovative, socially committed architecture is tailored to meet the environmental and other challenges of the 21st century.
Brendan has taught at the Bartlett School of Architecture and the Architectural Association in London, École Spécialed 'Architecture (Paris), the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Berlage and SCI-Arc, Georgia Tech, Rice University, among others.
Professor Emirata, Yale University School of Architecture
Peggy Deamer is Professor Emerita of Yale University’s School of Architecture. In 2007, she was the Head of Architecture and Planning at Auckland University, She is a founding member of the Architecture Lobby, a group advocating for the value of architectural design and labor.
She is the editor of Architecture and Capitalism: 1845 to the Present (Routledge, 2014) and The Architect as Worker: Immaterial Labor, the Creative Class, and the Politics of Design (Bloomsbury, 2016) and the author of Architecture and Labor (Routledge, 2020). She is a co-author of The Organizer’s Guide to Architecture Education.
Principal, Hill Thalis Architecture + Urban Projects
2024 Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medallist
Philip Thalis is principal of Hill Thalis Architecture + Urban Projects. Founded in 1992, the 12 person practice is recognised for its design skills and independent standpoint, and has won more than 100 awards, commendations and competitions. The practice undertakes a diverse range of project types and sizes.
Philip actively promotes the culture of architecture and city making, combining the direction of the practice with teaching, research, conference papers and public lectures, architectural criticism and expert opinion. The substantial book Public Sydney; Drawing the City (co-authored with Peter John Cantrill) was published to acclaim in 2013. In 2016 Uro Publishing released Minomono #2 on Hill Thalis' work.
Associate Professor of Architecture, Adelaide University
Damian Madigan is a registered architect and urban housing researcher known for creating ‘Bluefield Housing,’ a model for rethinking character suburbs through co-located housing.
His work led to the inclusion of this housing type in South Australia’s Planning & Design Code in 2025—the first legislated housing form in Australia developed through bottom-up research. His work has received international recognition including the Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation, and his book Bluefield Housing as Alternative Infill for the Suburbs has been described as “a grand vision for a future of housing and practical guide for how to achieve it”. In 2025 he received the AIA South Australia Sir James Irwin President’s Medal for his contributions to architecture.
Principal Architect, Founder & Managing Director, Biome Environmental Solutions
For over 30 years, Chitra Vishwanath’s work has been guided by a singular focus: buildings must be "part of the ecology"—not imposed upon it—using materials and systems that respect the land, water, and climate of their place.
Born in Varanasi, India and trained at CEPT University, her journey included early studies in civil engineering in Nigeria. Her own home, built in 1995 with earth blocks and water-sensitive systems, became a model for numerous similar projects. In 2008, her firm evolved into Biome Environmental Solutions, a collective focused on ecological design. With over 1,000 projects across diverse scales, her work emphasises local materials and climate responsiveness.
Director of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture
Farrokh Derakhshani is a Geneva-based architect and urban planner with over 40 years of experience in practice and institutional leadership. He has been involved with the Aga Khan Award for Architecture since 1982 and has served as its Director since 2006, overseeing global nominations, evaluation, and outreach. His work focuses on contemporary architecture in Muslim societies, emphasising cultural context, social responsibility, and design excellence. He has curated exhibitions, contributed to publications, and lectured at more than 50 universities worldwide.
Earlier, he practiced as an architect in France and Switzerland and worked in Iran on design and construction management for major public works and infrastructure projects.
Co-Founder, Moreau Kusunoki
Nicolas Moreau is a French architect and co-founder of Moreau Kusunoki, a Franco-Japanese architecture studio established in Paris in 2011 with Hiroko Kusunoki. The practice is founded on a shared passion for the infinitesimal from Japan and the Western ideologies of urbanism. The studio’s fundamental approach is to maintain an undefined space, an all-capable in-between, which empowers future users to activate and appropriate it, ensuring the projects’ relevance and value through time.
Notable works include Guggenheim Helsinki (2015), the Sciences Po (The Paris Institute of Political Studies) university campus in the centre of Paris (2021), the Powerhouse Parramatta Museum in Sydney (2019–2026), and the ongoing cultural renovation of the Centre Pompidou in Paris (2024–2030).
Co-Founder, Leong Leong
Visiting Professor, Yale University
Dominic Leong (Kanaka ʻŌiwi) is a founding partner of Leong Leong, a New York–based architecture studio working across cultural, social, and residential projects. Raised in Northern California with ties to Oʻahu and Maui, he views architecture through aesthetic, social, and ecological lenses shaped by a diasporic perspective. He is a Visiting Professor at Yale, leading Becoming ʻĀina: Hawaiʻi, a program supporting ʻāina restoration through Indigenous knowledge.
His work includes major collaborations and exhibitions such as Hale Pi’o, the Anita May Rosenstein Campus, and projects for institutions like The Met and the Guggenheim Bilbao. He holds degrees from Columbia University and Cal Poly and is a licensed architect in New York and Hawaiʻi.
Co-Founder and CEO, Heritage Foundation
2022 RIBA Royal Gold Medal Winner
2024 CAA Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
Dr. Yasmeen Lari is Pakistan’s first female architect and a pioneering figure in humanitarian architecture and sustainable development. She designed numerous landmark commercial buildings in Pakistan before shifting her focus to humanitarian work and founding the Heritage Foundation. Following natural disasters in Pakistan, she developed innovative low-cost, zero-carbon shelter solutions using traditional materials like bamboo, lime, and mud, training thousands of rural women and disaster-affected communities to build their own homes and infrastructure. Her work emphasises barefoot social architecture—empowering marginalised communities through participatory design and local craftsmanship.
She has received numerous international accolades, including the prestigious Jane Drew Prize, the Fukuoka Prize, and the RIBA Royal Gold Medal, recognising her transformative contributions to sustainable architecture and social justice.
NSW Government Architect
Abbie Galvin is the 24th NSW Government Architect, a role which has been in effect for over 200 years.
Using her skills and knowledge from 30 years of leadership in architectural practice, Abbie is responsible for championing design quality across the State, through advice, programmes, policy and advocacy.
Abbie and her team’s work includes the implementation of NSW’s first sustainable building policy for non-residential buildings, the leadership of the State Design Review Panel and the development of The NSW Pattern Book for Housing.
Professor of Art, Design and Material Culture and Co-Director of the Vā Moana Research Centre at the Auckland University of Technology
Dr. Albert Refiti is a leading scholar of the architecture and material culture of the Pacific. He is the co-author of the Handbook of Contemporary Indigenous Architecture (Springer 2018), Pacific Spaces: Translations and Transmutations (Berghahn 2022), Oceanic Architectural Routes: The work of Mike Austin (Objectspace 2026), and Vā Moana: Space and Relationality in Pacific Thought and Identity (ANU Press 2026).
He has worked as an architectural assistant at Lane Priest Architects and Noel Lane Architects in Auckland, and at Feary Heron Architects in London. He was a Pacific architecture specialist on the renovations of the Pacific Galleries and the Atrium of the Auckland Museum, the Fale Pasifika at the University of Auckland and the Fale Malae for Jasmax. With Rau Hoskins, he is currently leading a Te Apārangi Royal Society Marsden-funded research project on the architecture of the Moananui Pacific region.
Chief Economist at Simplicity
Shamubeel Eaqub makes economics easy and fun. Shamubeel is the Chief Economist at Simplicity, and also an author, media commentator and thought-leading public speaker.
He graduated with Honours in Economics from Lincoln University and is also a CFA Charterholder.
He has 25 years of experience as an economist in Wellington, Melbourne and Auckland in leading financial institutions and consultancy (ANZ Bank, Goldman Sachs JBWere, NZIER, Sense Partners and Simplicity).
He balances a portfolio of economics, consulting, public speaking, governance and family duties. He lives in Auckland with his wife and two sons.
Co-Director, MĀPIHI Māori and Pacific Housing Research Centre
Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland
Dr. James Miller is a Kanaka 'Ōiwi architect and Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland.
He is a Co-Director of MĀPIHI Māori and Pacific Housing Research Centre, leading the Pacific Region Strategy. Dr. Miller is a principal of Metaamo Studio and runs ‘Ike Honua Design Lab centering Indigenous design knowledge in the service of culturally resilient communities across the Pacific and Pacific Northwest.
Associate Dean Pacific, Director of University Research, and Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland
Dr Charmaine ‘Ilaiū Talei (Tatakamōtonga, Houma—Kingdom of Tonga) is an architect, researcher, and educator at Waipapa Taumata Rau the University of Auckland.
A registered architect in New Zealand and Queensland, she specialises in Pacific architecture, particularly Tongan and Fijian contexts. Her research spans housing wellbeing, multigenerational living, culturally responsive design, and the Indigenisation of architectural practice.
She has published widely and works as a consultant on projects across the Pacific, Aotearoa New Zealand, and Australia. In 2025, she was elected to co-lead the Education Committee of the Commonwealth Association of Architects, representing the Pacific region.
Designer, Sculptor, Furniture Maker
Founding Chair, Ngā Aho
Carin Wilson (Ngāti Awa, Tūhourangi) is a furniture maker, sculptor, and leading figure in Aotearoa New Zealand design. Over four decades, he has challenged boundaries between craft, art, and architecture, advocating for design grounded in Māori knowledge, cultural identity, and place.
A co-founder of the Artiture exhibitions and founding chair of Ngā Aho, the network of Māori design professionals, he has helped shift design discourse toward indigenous frameworks, influencing projects like the Te Aranga Design principles and notable Award-winning collaborations. His impact spans making, teaching, and advocacy.
Named a Laureate of the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Awards, Wilson’s work—including his self-designed studio—embodies design as a culturally rooted, ethical practice.
Co-Directors, Spacecraft Architects
Bringing porches, verandahs and backyards to apartment living.
Through Spacecraft Architects, Caro and Tim are looking at how we can live better, closer together in Aotearoa NZ. Experiments range from small and infill houses to mixed-use and multi-res typologies. Their work on cohousing projects has given them grounding in the commonalities people are looking for with housing, and has allowed them to experiment with shared space, bump space and grumpy space: and see how they work in practice.
Selected for the Pattern Book mid rise apartment in NSW, their winning entry looks at how this thinking can be applied repeatedly. Their interest in both pushing the envelope of what a house can be, and in hands-on building, means they repeatedly include building houses in their practice, completing a third house in Ngunguru in 2025.
Journalist, Commentator
Simon Wilson is a freelance journalist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, where he writes about urban design, social issues, climate change, politics and books.
He is a former senior writer at NZ Herald and before that was editor of Metro, Cuisine and Consumer magazines. His many awards include feature writer of the year (twice), magazine of the year (for Metro and Cuisine), and awards for essay writing, opinion writing and reviewing. He is the author of HomeGround: The story of a building that changes lives (Massey University Press, 2022) and editor of The Journal of Urgent Writing vol 2 (MUP, 2017).
Simon appears frequently as a commentator on Radio New Zealand and is a columnist for NZ Listener.
Co-Directors, MĀPIHI Māori and Pacific Housing Research Centre, University of Auckland
Professor Deidre Brown (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu) is a Māori architectural and art historian at Te Pare School of Architecture and Planning, Te Tumu of the Faculty of Engineering and Design Te Herenga Auaha, and also co-director of MĀPIHI. In 2023 she was awarded the NZIA Gold Medal, the Institute’s highest honour.
Dr. Karamia Müller is a Pacific scholar specialising in Pacific space concepts. Currently a lecturer at the School of Architecture and Planning, Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries at the University of Auckland, she is also a Co-Director of MĀPIHI, a University Research Centre for Māori and Pacific Housing.
Architect, Visual Artist, Co-Founder, Studio Tira
Raukura Turei is a registered architect, visual artist and māmā of two kōtiro. Her whakapapa is Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, Ngāti Pāoa and Ngā Rauru Kītahi.
In 2026 she has founded Studio Tira with business partner Charlotte Stewart, a new voice for contemporary Māori architecture in Aotearoa.
Prior to this she has been a principal at Monk Mackenzie, leading the practice’s work on large-scale papakāinga developments, marae and cultural centres.
Raukura’s artwork has been exhibited throughout Aotearoa and internationally. Her whenua-based practice reconciles personal narratives of whakapapa, loss, and traditional pūrakau.
Architect, Seeman Rush Architects
Artist, Peter Rush Drawings
Peter Rush is a Sydney-based architect and artist whose energetic urban sketches capture the character and complexity of everyday city life. Working with pen and coloured pencil—often on found materials such as cereal boxes—his expressive style conveys movement and atmosphere.
His work has been exhibited across Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, and featured in publications including The World of Urban Sketching. A sought-after instructor, he has taught at international symposiums and universities, sharing an approach influenced by Gordon Cullen and his book The Concise Townscape.
Director and Principal, Co-Studio Architects
Sketching Lounge Facilitator
Dennis is a Christchurch-based architect running Co-Studio Architects. His 40-plus year architecture career has always included a strong hand-drawn element, as he believes working with his hands allows a more natural design process.
While working in London with a daily commute to Brighton, Dennis started a 30-year passion for drawing people in their surroundings which has developed into skills in urban sketching and portrait art. Interested in developing a social and collegial element to the conference, Dennis will be based in the sketching lounge, in addition to leading a workshop and walking tour focusing on seeing joy in forgotten parts of the city.
Executive Director, Global Designing Cities Initiative
Skye Duncan has supported over 70 international cities to transform streets and mobility to support safe, sustainable, equitable, and healthy cities for everyone.
She is an urban designer with more than 20 years of experience in architecture, urban design, planning, and transportation, and has been recognized as one of TUMI’s Remarkable Women in Transportation.
She was a Senior Urban Designer at the New York City Department of City Planning, an International Urban Design Consultant, and an Associate Professor at Columbia University, where she studied as a Fulbright Scholar. She has also worked for local New Zealand practices after graduating from Victoria University of Wellington.