Fast Forward lecture series

A well-known and respected event in the community, Fast Forward is generously sponsored by GIB® . NZRAB CPD points are available at each lecture. Attendance at each talk is free. All are welcome.

Semester Two (July-August)

This semester, the Fast Forward Lecture Series brings together some of Aotearoa's and Australia's leading architects, designers and built-environment thinkers. Their lectures will explore the ideas, people and practices shaping the future of our cities, places and communities.

Jemima Retallack and Mitchel Thompson’s Sydney-based practice, formed in 2016, is likely best known in New Zealand for their 2017 Garden Wall “anti-pavilion” at the National Gallery of Victoria, designed with Other Architects. The main body of their work is residential, adaptive-reuse, and small-scale commercial projects that celebrate an “Australian regionalism”.

Their portfolio includes thoughtful and modest projects such as Tree House, Steel House/Stone House, House for a Garden, and Erskineville Creature, each demonstrating a commitment to inventive design within tight urban conditions. Rarely working with a blank page, this talk explores the existing acting as brief and finding opportunities in constraint.

The lecture is supported by the NZIA Waikato & Bay of Plenty Branch.

Kate Rogan and Eva Nash, Rogan Nash Architects (Auckland):

Eva Nash and Kate Rogan founded Rogan Nash Architects in 2012. Based in Grey Lynn, the firm has established a reputation for award-winning residential architecture. Both are Fellows of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, have served on numerous awards juries—including at the World Architecture Festival—and appeared as a Guest Expert on TVNZ’s Our First Home.

Lynda Simmons, LSA (Auckland):

Lynda Simmons is an award-winning architect and academic, and is a professional teaching fellow at the Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland. Simmons was a co-founder of the Architecture + Women NZ association. Her research focuses on design processes in art practices, and the uncovering of "invisible histories" in the New Zealand architectural community. She is Fellow of the Institute and received a President's Award in 2014 for her advocacy work.

The lecture is supported by Architecture + Women NZ.

Megan Couture is a Technical Director – Planning at Beca with over a decade of experience across the public and private sectors in New Zealand and internationally. She currently serves as Deputy Chair of Te Kōkiringa Taumata | the New Zealand Planning Institute (NZPI), having previously contributed through the Emerging Planners and Auckland Branch Committees.

Megan is also a member of NZPI’s Resource Management Advisory Group, and has recently been appointed as one of NZPI and Manatū mō te Taiao | Ministry for the Environment’s (MfE) System Navigators Group, established to develop a shared understanding of reform and its practical implications for practice change among planning practitioners.

Megan holds a Master of Urban Planning (First Class Honours) from the University of Auckland. She first came to New Zealand as a Fulbright scholar, focused on understanding how cultural values and worldviews shape the country’s planning framework, an interest that continues to underpin her work. At Fast Forward, Megan will speak on the evolution of New Zealand’s planning system, reflecting on recent and proposed reforms, and what they mean in practice for planners, communities, and decision-makers.

Patrick Clifford co-founded Architectus, with Malcolm Bowes and Michael Thomson, in 1986. Attention-grabbing projects began to accumulate and awards followed. The firm has since grown into one of the nations most celebrated architectural firms, having amassed more than 100 New Zealand Institute of Architect’s awards and Clifford receiving the Institute’s Gold Medal in 2014.

Architectus have contributed numerous buildings to New Zealand’s architectural canon. Important recent projects include Wynyard Central East 2 (2018), recipient of the NZIA Sir Ian Athfield Award for Housing, and the NZIA National Award-winning Catalina Apartments (2024).

Architectus Aotearoa currently has 70 staff members across offices in Auckland, Wellington, Tauranga and Christchurch. Clifford is still active in the firm alongside an expanding group of principals, and Clifford’s lecture will mark the 40th anniversary of its founding. 

Professor Johnson Witehira (Tamahaki, Ngāi Tū-te-auru, Ngāti Hinekura) is Head of School of Te Rewa o Puanga – School of Music and Screen Arts at Massey University. An artist, designer and researcher of Māori and Pākehā descent, his practice explores how mātauranga Māori can shape the built environment, public space, and emerging technologies.

He has collaborated on major civic projects including the departure journey at Auckland Airport and integrated artworks for the City Rail Link. His work investigates how design can express whakapapa, strengthen cultural identity, and create meaningful relationships between people, place and infrastructure.

Johnson is co-founder of Indigenous Design and Innovation Aotearoa, a research collective advancing Indigenous-led futures through design, and co-founder of PAKU, whose award-winning Māori gardening tools have received international recognition. In this lecture, Johnson reflects on a selection of projects across the built environment, considering how Indigenous design approaches can move beyond representation to actively shape the spaces, systems and futures we inhabit. 

Many of our Fast Forward lectures are recorded and available to watch online following the event. Watch a selection of previous Fast Forward lectures on YouTube.

If you have any queries about our events, please get in touch.

Email: foed-events@auckland.ac.nz