76 Small Rooms

Episode 073 - InSitu 2026 - Brendan MacFarlane

76 Small Rooms

Show Notes

Welcome to Episode 073! This is our first of three interviews at Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects In:Situ 2026 + CAA General Assembly conference.

Tash, Mat and Arch spoke with Brendan MacFarlane ahead of his keynote talk on the first day of the conference. Brendan is a graduate of SCI-arc and holds a masters from Harvard Graduate School of Design, and in 1998 he and Dominique Jakob founded Jakob+MacFarlane, a Paris based practice with work that’s both formally and regionally expansive. We talked with Brendan about context, metaphors, and how architects do their best work when their 'backs are to the wall'

Our thanks to Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects for arranging our interview with Brendan.

Jakob + MacFarlane - https://jakobmacfarlane.com/en

Theme Music: The Cosmic Wheels

More from 76 Small Rooms

Oct 8, 2026

Welcome to Episode 074! This is our second interview from Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects In:Situ 2026 + CAA General Assembly conference.

Sep 10, 2026

Welcome to Episode 72! We were very lucky to sit down with founding director of RTA Studio and this year's Gold Medal winner, Rich Naish for a very special chat about what it means to receive the award, his entry into architecture, and the ongoing quest to make something that's "nearly good".

Sep 3, 2026

Welcome to Episode 71! The full team met to chat with the inexhaustible architect, writer, and academic Dr Andrew Barrie. Fresh off the back of two NZIA Local Awards - for the St Luke's Anglican Church Hospitality Centre, and the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church - Andrew talked with us about his early career in Japan, the invigoration he gets from teaching, and the high stakes work of having your wife as a client.

Aug 20, 2026

Welcome to Episode 70! Arch, Jeremy, and Tash had the pleasure of chatting with Tom Kundig during his recent visit to Aotearoa. We first spoke to Tom all the way back in Episode 06, and it was great to catch up again.

Jul 2, 2026

Welcome to Episode 69! This is another chat from our time in Ōtautahi during OpenCHCH, where we had a tour of One New Zealand Stadium at Te Kaha and spoke to the project architect and Warren and Mahoney's Sport and Recreation Sector Lead Matt Body. Te Kaha is a project of immense scale and complexity and we were lucky to see the public and player areas in detail. The building was also open for very well attended open days during OpenCHCH. We talk with Matt about the complexities of the design process, the impact of Aotearoa's first inner city stadium, and the science and technology behind the outcome.

See all episodes →