A get together online to celebrate International Women’s Day, with talks by two regional architects, Carolyn McFarland and Sara Pearson.  Both architects were recipients of awards in the 2026 NSW AIA Regional Architecture Awards;

Austin McFarland Pty Ltd, led by Carolyn (Austin) McFarland and Russell McFarland, is a Wingham-based architectural practice on the NSW Mid North Coast and the 2026 recipient of the Regional Medallion for the First Steps Count Child and Community Centre in Biripi. With over 21 years of practice, the firm delivers award-winning architecture across regional NSW, with Carolyn’s expertise in smaller-scale design informing a diverse portfolio of residential, tourism, commercial, and educational projects.

Sara Pearson is the winner of the 2026 Named Award for Multiple Housing in the NSW Regional Awards, as well as the founder of Pearson Architecture, a Sydney and Northern Rivers–based practice established in 2009, specialising in bespoke residential and retail architecture. Drawing on experience across leading Sydney practices, government urban design offices, and international studios, her work explores environmentally responsive design, client collaboration, and design outcomes grounded in place. Alongside practice, Sara contributes to architectural education through her teaching at UNSW, bringing a research-informed and practice-based perspective to her work.

Carolyn McFarland 

Carolyn (Austin) McFarland along with Russell McFarland are Austin Mcfarland Architects, a small practice located in Wingham, on the NSW Mid North Coast. In the 21 years that Austin McFarland Architects has been practicing, we have aimed to push the bounds and create award winning architecture in regional NSW
for private, public and community clients.
Carolyn’s experience has been concentrated on the more intimately scaled projects including houses, retail outlets and interiors. Carolyn has worked in some of Sydney’s leading small scale architects and has developed a rich understanding of her clientele and design sensibilities.
With her work with Austin McFarland, Carolyn has been involved in a large range of projects including residential, tourism, commercial and school projects. Her sensitivities developed on smaller scale projects generates a lightness of approach to design, scale and detailing and large scale projects.

Sara Pearson

Sara Pearson founded Pearson Architecture in 2009. With a background working in Sydney based residential architecture practices, government urban design offices and international architecture offices specialising in large scale commercial and institutional design, her design practice is focused on close collaboration with clients and builders to achieve high quality environmentally responsive built projects. Currently working in both Sydney and Regional NSW, and with several years of experience tutoring in design, construction and professional practice at UNSW, Sara draws on a broad base of local knowledge and interests for each design project.