Carinnya Feaunati

Carinnya Feaunati is a Samoan New Zealand architect, cultural design advisor and lecturer.

Early life and education Feaunati was born in Porirua. Her parents are both Samoan, and came to New Zealand in the 1970s and 80s. She describes how the school Polynesian dance club practices were held in her living room as it was only her and her sisters participating. She was a finalist in the 2014 Student Design Awards, and her master's project led on to other work with Atelier Workshop: Bonnifait + Giesen and NIWA on building for resilience in the village of Sa'anapu, Samoa.

Career Feaunati tutors and guest lectures at the School of Architecture at Victoria University of Wellington, and is both a registered architect and cultural design lead at Designgroup Stapleton Elliott. She is interested in how to build low-cost housing at scale, how design can be more culturally responsive, and how architecture can respond to global change and disaster recovery. In 2020 Feaunati co-founded MAU Studio with friends.

Feaunati was on the jury of the Architecture + Women NZ Dulux Awards in 2023. She was appointed to the board of the New Zealand Institute of Architects in 2022.