Brendan MacFarlane, born in New Zealand, graduated from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), received his master degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In 1998, he and Dominique Jakob co-founded Jakob+MacFarlane, a multidisciplinary, multicultural practice whose innovative, socially committed architecture is tailored to meet the environmental and other challenges of the 21st century. Brendan has taught at the Bartlett School of Architecture and the Architectural Association, l’École Spéciale d’Architecture (Paris), the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and the SCI-Arc.

Key built projects by Jakob+MacFarlane include Restaurant Georges in Centre Pompidou (Paris), Renault Communication Center (Boulogne-Billancourt), Orange Cube / Groupe Cardinal HQ and Global HQ of Euronews TV (Lyon), French Institute of Fashion – City of Fashion and Design (Paris),  Contemporary Art Centre (Orléans), renovation of the Renaud-Barrault Mediatheque (Avignon), Contemporary Art Centre Nouvelle Aquitaine (Limoges). Ongoing: Community House (Knokke-Heist), Centre for Urban Sports and Culture (Toulouse), the new campus of the Université Français d’Egypte (El Shorouk, Cairo).

Jakob+MacFarlane are initiators of the French chapter of ‘Architects Declare Climate & Ecological Emergency’ and winners of the C40 Reinventing Cities competition in France and in Iceland.

 Works by Jakob+MacFarlane were exhibited internationally, including the Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Bartlett School Gallery (London), the Artist Space (New York), the Victoria & Albert Museum (London), the SFMOMA (San Francisco), the Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), the Pavillon de l’Arsenal (Paris), the Carnegie Melon (USA), and the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine (Paris), as well as the 2021 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism and COP26 in Glasgow.

In 2023, the French Ministry of Culture awarded the Remarkable Contemporary Architecture label to the Contemporary Art Centre (Frac) in Orleans.

In 2025, Jakob+MacFarlane are representing France as Lead Curators of the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture.