Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects holds its biennial in:situ conference at the Aotea Centre in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland from 8 to 10 September 2026. For the first time, in:situ is co-located with the Commonwealth Association of Architects General Assembly, which marks the CAA's 60th anniversary and runs across 7 to 10 September. The organisers describe it as the largest architecture event in Aotearoa, with a speaker list drawn from Paris, Sydney, Bengaluru, Geneva, Karachi and across the Pacific. The programme culminates in a gala dinner announcing the CAA Awards and the 2026 NZIA Gold Medal.
Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects will hold in:situ 2026, its biennial national conference, at the Aotea Centre in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland from 8 to 10 September 2026. The event is officially branded in:situ 2026 + CAA General Assembly, because for the first time the conference is co-located with the General Assembly of the Commonwealth Association of Architects. The CAA component runs across a slightly wider window, 7 to 10 September, and marks the association's 60th anniversary. The conference speaking prompt is "Manaakitanga", framed by the organisers as an exploration of how architecture offers support, generosity and hospitality to the people who use it.
Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects was first established in 1905 and is a membership-based professional body with more than 4,000 members. Roughly half are registered architects practising in New Zealand; the balance comprises New Zealand architects working overseas, architectural graduates, students, teachers of architecture and retired members. in:situ has been the Institute's flagship gathering since 2015 and is held every two years. Recent editions were staged at Spark Arena — a one-day format in 2024 hosted by The Guardian's architecture critic Oliver Wainwright, and a "mini in:situ" in 2022. The 2026 edition is a substantial expansion on that pattern: three full days, a multi-stream programme, and an international assembly bolted alongside it.
The conference brand identity was developed with artist, designer and Creative Director Arnya Karaitiana. It draws on the idea of Te Moananui-a-Kiwa, the Moana as a living highway rather than a boundary, and on pūhoro, the form expressing momentum and the wake of the waka. The organisers frame the two co-located gatherings as "two islands held within the great ocean".
This is the part of the story that matters most for New Zealand business events, and it is fully confirmed. In a joint announcement dated 31 October 2025, NZIA and the CAA confirmed that the CAA's 60th Anniversary General Assembly will be held in conjunction with in:situ in Auckland from 7 to 10 September 2026. It is the first time the Institute has hosted the General Assembly in Tāmaki Makaurau.
The CAA was established in 1965 and represents architectural institutes from countries across the Commonwealth. Its General Assembly brings together those institutes and professional bodies to connect, collaborate and exchange knowledge, and the Institute has said it expects a significant number of international delegates as a result of hosting. NZIA Perehitini (President) Huia Reriti described it as an opportunity for the New Zealand architecture community to share a perspective on design that honours te ao Māori and Pasifika. CAA President Steven Oundo framed Aotearoa as a fitting host for a 60th-anniversary discussion of cultural identity, sustainability and architectural excellence.
The joint programme culminates in a gala celebration dinner at which the CAA Awards winners are announced alongside the 2026 NZIA Gold Medal recipient — the Institute's highest honour.
The primary audience is architects, but the framing is deliberately wider: designers, planners, academics, policymakers, students and built-environment leaders. The published programme carries streams on housing, economics, the Oceania region and related contemporary issues, alongside keynotes, panels, workshops, a sketching lounge and city walking tours. Attendees can earn up to 100 CPD points toward New Zealand architect registration.
The speaker list is genuinely international. Confirmed names include Brendan MacFarlane of Paris practice Jakob+MacFarlane; Dr Yasmeen Lari, Pakistan's first female architect, RIBA Royal Gold Medallist and CAA Lifetime Achievement Award winner; Peggy Deamer, Professor Emerita at Yale; Philip Thalis, the 2024 Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medallist; Chitra Vishwanath of Biome Environmental Solutions in Bengaluru; Farrokh Derakhshani, Director of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture; Nicolas Moreau of Moreau Kusunoki; Abbie Galvin, the NSW Government Architect; and Skye Duncan of the Global Designing Cities Initiative. Local and Pacific voices include Dr Albert Refiti, Professor Deidre Brown, Dr Karamia Müller, Dr James Miller, Dr Charmaine 'Ilaiū Talei, Raukura Turei, Carin Wilson and economist Shamubeel Eaqub. The Designers Institute of New Zealand is contributing a panel stream.
The conference is at the Aotea Centre — Aotea Te Pokapū — at 50 Mayoral Drive, in the Aotea Arts Quarter of Auckland's city centre. This is not the NZICC, which some listings have carried in error. The Aotea Centre is the flagship venue of Auckland Conventions, Venues & Events, part of Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, and has recently been refurbished.
Its main auditorium, the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, seats up to 2,139 across three levels, one of New Zealand's largest modern tiered auditoriums. Supporting spaces include the Hunua Rooms at 909 square metres (up to 778 theatre-style, 580 banquet, 900 cocktail), the Waitākere Rooms at 518 square metres, the Waihorotiu Rooms overlooking Aotea Square, the Limelight Rooms, and large foyer spaces — the Balcony Foyer at 1,100 square metres and the Stalls Foyer at 800 square metres — suited to exhibition and catering. The Institute notes the building was designed by city architect Ewen Wainscott in 1974 and has won an NZIA Silver Medal, and that Level 2 holds the Taula anchor stone donated by the people of the Pacific Islands in 1998.
On logistics: the venue is a roughly 15-minute walk or short bus ride from Britomart Transport Centre, and about a 30-minute drive from Auckland Airport. The Civic Car Park is the closest parking, with step-free access to Level 1. Auckland Transport advises allowing extra travel time in the city centre. The organisers have listed accommodation partners within walking distance including the Grand Millennium and Four Points by Sheraton on Mayoral Drive, SkyCity and SkyCity Grand on Federal Street, and SO/Auckland, TRIBE, The Hotel Britomart and Jo & Joe in the lower CBD, plus the Park Hyatt at the Wynyard end. Auckland Convention Bureau is running a delegate offer programme of discounted activities and tours for attendees.
This is an association conference doing what association conferences are supposed to do for a destination. A domestic biennial event has been used as the anchor to win an international general assembly, bringing member institutes from across the Commonwealth to Auckland for the first time in the CAA's sixty-year history. The delegates are multi-day, city-centre, shoulder-season visitors arriving in early September, staying in CBD hotels and attending an awards gala — the profile the sector actively courts.
It also demonstrates the Aotea Centre working as a genuine multi-stream conference venue rather than solely a performing-arts house, hosting plenary, breakouts, exhibition and a gala across one building in the middle of the city.
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