KebbellDaish was founded by Sam Kebbell and John Daish in Wellington, New Zealand. John retired in 2009 and Sam has directed the practice since then. In addition to his work in practice, Sam is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington. Sam combines his unshakeable suburban-rural roots with a deep knowledge of international discourse, and revels in the dynamic between modest practicalities and far-reaching ideas.

Sam holds a PhD from RMIT University in Melbourne, and in 2015 was an ADAPTr Research Fellow at the University of Westminster in London. He graduated from VUW with a B.Arch (1st class Hons) in 1998 which included an exchange to the Penn State University visual arts program and the Penn State architecture program in Rome. He completed his Masters of Design in History and Theory (Distinction) at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard (Cambridge, USA) in 1999. Sam worked in Boston, New York, and Amsterdam before he returned to practice in Wellington. KebbellDaish has won numerous architectural awards and competitions and several of its projects have been exhibited in New Zealand, Australia, and Europe, and the work continues to be the subject of articles in popular, professional, and academic publications.