Daniel Torakai is a structural engineer. He studied civil engineering at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern and wrote his diploma thesis about self-powered skyscrapers at the Department of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

Since 2011 Daniel is part of the Werner Sobek Team, first in Stuttgart, Moscow, London and later in Frankfurt. He became a Managing Director at the Frankfurt office in 2021.

Over the past decade, Daniel has worked on several national and international large-scale projects such as the new main station Stuttgart 21, Kuwait International Airport or the new highrise ensemble FOUR in the city centre of Frankfurt.

Daniel is teaching Textile Architecture at the Institute for Leightweight Structures and Conceptual Design at the University of Stuttgart and Sketching for Engineers at the HFT Stuttgart. He is also a lecturer for Highrise Concrete Buildings at the University of Frankfurt.

Georg Gewers was born in Westphalia in 1962. He began studying stonemasonry and sculpture under his father, the artist Bernhard Gewers, before going on to complete his architectural studies at the Universities of Aachen and Stuttgart and a scholarship at the École d’Architecture Belleville in Paris.

Having received his diploma in 1990, he spent a year at Norman Foster Associates in London, after which he made Berlin his base. Georg collaborated in executive positions in different partnerships before founding the studio Gewers Pudewill together with Henry Pudewill in 2008.

His varied portfolio of work is characterised a by a continued search for new challenges and experimental solutions to unique requirements in urban design, combined with a clear and calm design language. His work and the work of Gewers Pudewill in Germany and internationally has been honoured with numerous prizes, awards and publications.

Hieronimus Nickl studied architecture in the diploma course at Erfurt University of Applied
Sciences until 2003. In 2008, he completed an MBA in International Hospital and Healthcare
Management at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management with a Master’s Degree.
He joined Nickl & Partner Architekten AG already in 2003 and has been a project and team
manager specialising in international projects since 2005. Since 2015, he has been Managing
Director of the Beijing office and a member of the Managing Board of Nickl & Partner
Architekten AG. In 2019, he shifted to the German market and became Managing Director of
Nickl & Partner Deutschland GmbH, headquartered in Munich.
Selected projects of his work are Heidelberg Heart Center, Frankfurt H23, Multifunctional
Medical Center in St. Petersburg, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Anapa Hospital in
Russia and Shenyang Hospital No 8. in China.

Sergei Tchoban, born in Saint Petersburg in 1962, is a Russian-German architect. After his studies at the State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture Ilya Repin of the Russian Academy of Arts, Saint Petersburg, he worked as an architect in Russia. In 1992 he started working at the architectural office NPS Nietz – Prasch – Sigl in Hamburg. In 1995 he became managing partner of this company, which since 2017 trades as TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten with offices in Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden. Since 2006 Sergei Tchoban is head of the architectural office SPEECH in Moscow. 2009 the Tchoban Foundation started, growing 2013 into the Museum for Architectural Drawing in Berlin.
At the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2010 and 2012 Sergei Tchoban was curator of the Russian Pavilion. In 2015 he was the architect of the Russian Pavilion for the EXPO Milan. In 2017 he founded the Biennale for young architects in Russia.
Since 1992 Sergei Tchoban is member of the American Society of Architectural Illustrators ASAI and in 2020 he was President.
2018 Sergei Tchoban received the European Prize for Architecture by Chicago Athenaeum Museum of
Architecture and Design.

Björn Asmussen has been a member of the interdisciplinary design office 3deluxe since 2007. He studied architecture at the TU Darmstadt and is a registered member of the Rhineland-Palatinate Chamber of Architects.
As a senior architect, he was largely responsible for the internationally successful projects of 3deluxe such as the high-tech logistics centre Harting European Distribution Center, the administration building FC-Campus in Karlsruhe, the company headquarters Kaffee Partner and the Butterfly Pavilion in Dubai as well as the expedition ship Celebrity Flora and many more. As Director of the Ocean Department, he is also responsible for the maritime and shipbuilding projects of 3delux

• VP Architecture & Enduser – global sales at Kvadrat
• Working for Kvadrat since 1999. Responsible for the contract business at Kvadrat worldwide – we call it Architecture and large end user business at Kvadrat.
• Master in business
• Danish
• Live in Hamburg

Björn is an Architectural Market development manager for the Trosifol and SentryGlas® interlayer business of Kuraray.

His activities are mainly in Europe  with a focus on the french speaking countries and Benelux.

After his graduation as a material science engineer at the Swiss Institute of Technology, he joined DuPont where he fulfilled different positions in manufacturing, technical service, sales and market development.  He has been active in the interlayer business since 1992 and he joined Kuraray in 2014.

He is based in the Netherlands.

Olaf Drehsen is one of the four founding partners and since 2009, the managing partner of JSWD
Architects GmbH & Co. KG in Cologne, Germany. Mr.Drehsen has 30 years of professional experience
in Europe and abroad. Born and raised in Düren, Germany, he received an architectural degree from
Rheinisch‐Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) in Aachen, Germany in 1994.
Mr Drehsen’s early professional experiences were in the offices of Behnisch+Partner in Stuttgart,
Kowalski in Düsseldorf, followed by Gerkan, Marg und Partner (gmp) in Hamburg /Aachen. In 1998,
he opened, WJD Architects in Cologne with Rolf Watrin and Frederik Jaspert. In 2000, WJD Architects
won first prize for the ICE Cologne‐Deutz Terminal competition in collaboration with Konstantin
Jaspert and Jürgen Steffens. Due to the project‘s success, the firms merged in 2000 into JSWD
Architects in Cologne.
From 2015‐2021 he was the Vice Chairman of the Design Advisory Board of the City of Düren. He is
the Markborough Distinguished Chair Professor at the University of South Florida (USF), School of
Architecture and Community Design (SACD), in Tampa, Florida, USA.

Oliver Jung is responsible for the sales and customer consulting in the Central and Eastern Europe for Evonik’s high-performance insulation material CALOSTAT®. He holds two degrees in Engineering from the Universities of Applied Sciences of Mainz and Wiesbaden. He has experience in the construction industry as project construction manager. In the year 2000 he joined the dry mix mortar industry and worked for Quick-Mix as Head of Training and Technical Service. Before joining Evonik in 2014 for his current position the headed the sales department of Rotec.

Oliver Jung verantwortet in Zentral- und Osteuropa den Vertrieb und die Kundenberatung für den Hochleistungsdämmstoff CALOSTAT® von Evonik. Er hat zwei Abschlüsse in Ingenieurwissenschaften von den Fachhochschulen Mainz und Wiesbaden. Erste Erfahrung in der Baubranche sammelte er als Projektleiter. Im Jahr 2000 wechselte er bei die Trockenmörtelindustrie und arbeitete für Quick-Mix als Leiter Ausbildung und Technischer Service. Bevor er 2014 für seine jetzige Position zu Evonik kam, leitete er den Vertrieb von Rotec.

Klaus Ransmayr studied architecture at the Technical University of Vienna and received his Master of Advanced Architectural Design Degree at Columbia University in New York in 2005. He worked at Coop Himmelb(l)au in Vienna as well as at Asymptote Architecture in New York City. Klaus Ransmayr is Partner since 2017 and Design Director at Henn Berlin where he is managing the Design Studio.

Karen is a design director at Lichtvision Design heading up the design studio in London. With more than 20 years of work experience in the world or architecture and lighting, she is responsible for the design and delivery of UK and international projects.

Recent projects include Western Sydney International (Nancy Bird Walton) Airport, Xi’an International Football Centre, ONE Nine Elms in London, the cruise ships Costa Smeralda and Toscana, Tribeca Central Mauritius and the Self-Portrait Flagship Store in London.

An advocate for world-wide collaborations and a fan of interdisciplinary design meetings. She enjoys a large-scale strategic design approach just as well as the intricate designs of a small gem, always keeping her attention to detail and awareness of cultural context and nuances.

Eike Becker studied architecture at TH Aachen, University of Stuttgart and the École nationale
supérieure d’architecture de Paris-Belleville. In 1991, he founded Becker Gewers Kühn & Kühn
Architekten. In 1999, Becker founded Eike Becker_Architecten, which stands for superferent
architecture, with Helge Schmidt. Eike Becker_Architekten’s founding design and planning methods
are deeply embedded in city planning and societal developments to guarantee that increasingly
diversified needs in contemporary urbanism are met. Current projects include the Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung’s new publishing headquarters in Frankfurt’s Europaviertel district. In Berlin, Eike
Becker_Architekten has recently developed a cooperative housing estate in the Gropiusstadt
neighborhood, a quiet green living oasis in the middle of the city, as well as the Spreeturm near
Ostbahnhof train station. Eike Becker_Architekten is currently working with a team of approximately
50 people at offices in Berlin and Frankfur

Axel Bienhaus, born in 1970, graduated from the University of Kaiserslautern with a degree in Architecture in 1996. One year later he started his career with AS+P. In 2004, Axel Bienhaus became member of the management and a shareholder of the company. Since 2016, he is Managing Director of AS+P Albert Speer + Partner GmbH, responsible for building design and all architecture related projects including consulting, as well as airport planning.

Axel was, inter alia, in charge of multiple large-scale headquarter projects, including the object planning (of the building and monitoring of firms working on construction) for the new European Central Bank in Frankfurt / Main, the recently completed HeidelbergCement head office in Heidelberg, and the new home for the Eintracht Frankfurt Fussball AG with club offices and ProfiCampfor the professional players. During his long career with AS+P, he was also responsible for the realization of numerous national and international sports venues and several airport planning projects.

Axel Bienhaus is member of the board of the Association of Architects and Engineers Frankfurt/Main (AIV)

Born and raised in Germany. Studied business management in Giessen. Successful nationally and internationally in sales and consulting. Always looking for contemporary, value-adding and efficient office concepts. Today "Head of Academy" at König + Neurath.

Drawing on my education as an engineer and experience from more than two decades in consulting and construction companies, I have held senior positions within Healthcare projects, urban planning, real estate development, including, general planner-, project-, design- and construction management.

Creating attractive value propositions, leading and motivating international teams in complex, interdisciplinary projects as well as developing and implementing strategies within business developing, planning, process management, sales and marketing I the silver lining in my career.

In my present role as Global Market Director for the Ramboll spearhead “Hospitals”, I’m responsible for strategic sales including developing, expanding and maintaining customer relationships and markets.

Working across international markets, a big part of my job has been following the latest trends, developing and transferring the latest knowledge in the hospital sector across geographies, with a high focus on sustainability and the future of smart technologies in Hospitals.

During the Covid-19 pandemic I have been in charge of an international, non-profit research study, creating a field book that outlines the learnings of the pandemic in Europe and the US.

https://c.ramboll.com/pandemic-resilience

Thomas Busse studied architecture at the universities of Darmstadt and Florence. In 2004-9 he was the Design Director for KSP Engel in Beijing and helped establish the office. The Beijing National Library and the Nanjing Art Museum are the first two major cultural edifices KSP Engel built in China. Since 2014 he has been Team Head Competitions, based in Frankfurt. With projects such as Siemens Campus Erlangen, Kasernenstrasse Düsseldorf and Creative Blocks in Hamburg, his team has been successfully addressing topics such as new residential and working worlds. Since 2017 he has been in charge of the practice’s international business; in 2018 the Shenzhen office was opened. Today Thomas Busse leads an international team that is working on numerous exciting projects.

Ruprecht studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich. He joined Chapman
Taylor in 1995 and worked in the London office until 1997, after which he moved back to
Germany to help establish the Düsseldorf office.
Ruprecht is in charge for the design and delivery of projects for mixed-use, retail, office and
hospitality. He has also established the role of Chapman Taylor as a general planner and
has been in charge of planner teams in large scale schemes.
Since 2013, Ruprecht has been Managing Director of Chapman Taylor Düsseldorf and is
responsible for projects in Germany and Austria.

Qualifications
Dipl.-Ing. (TU) Architekt

Experience
1995 – 1997 Project Architect Chapman Taylor, London
1997 – 2010 Project Architect, Chapman Taylor, Düsseldorf
2010 – 2013 Prokurist Chapman Taylor, Düsseldorf
Since 2013 Managing Director Chapman Taylor, Germany

With more than 25 years of experience in workplace strategy, research, design and urban strategy, Philip has worked with global organisations across mainland Europe to implement workplace programs attuned to the region’s many cultural and legislative variations.

Philip has also advised numerous European public-sector organisations on how enhanced work environments can lead to improved performance.

Through his conference participation, articles and blogs, Philip regularly addresses how the rapidly changing nature of work impacts people, buildings and cities. An active member of CoreNet Global, The British Council of Offices (BCO) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Philip also serves as an Adjunct Professor of the Master of Workplace Design course at the IE School of Architecture in Madrid/London.

Architect, partner and CEO of Mad Oslo Åshild Wangensteen Bjørvik (born 1977 in Norway) was educated at NTNU in Norway and ENSAPLV in France. She has more than 18 years of experience as an architect, and joined Mad in 2008.

Åshild has been the team leader of several large-scale urban projects, including the Mad building in Oslo and Media City Bergen. She has also worked with the cutting-edge re-use project in Kristian Augusts gate 13. Her main goal as a CEO is to inspire, to build high performance teams and make people work well together.

“I look forward to discussing the future of sustainable architecture in Frankfurt, and hope to address the issues of reuse of building materials, the use of timber in modern architecture – and the importance of craftsmanship in a circular economy.”

Christopher Hammerschmidt studied architecture at Bauhaus University and Oxford Brookes University. In the year 2000 he joined Foster + Partners and was involved in various prestigious office developments in the City of London and in Paris. As an associate partner at Foster + Partners he was responsible for the design and building process of the Zenith concert hall in Saint Etienne, France.
He joined KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten in 2010 where he was responsible for the design and competition team, before he became managing director and partner. He was responsible for the design and realization of many prestigious projects as the high-rise tower for SAP in Eschborn, the PWC headquarters in Berlin and the headquarters building Jean Monnet 2 of the European Commission in Luxemburg. After 2 years as a director for Sweco, Europe’s leading expert for sustainable cities, he has joined ATP as managing director in 2020. His belief is: Intelligent multi-disciplinary design solutions are essential to create design responses for sustainable communities in the futur

Graduated from the Vatel Hospitality School, Damien Perrot joined Accor group in 1998, as an IT-project manager for the Wagon-Lits Company. He was then appointed assignment manager for the Procurement Department.

From 2000 to 2012, he successfully occupied various positions within the Hotels Equipment Services: from IT project leader to eventually Department Director and Design & Technical Services Communication Director in 2009.

In 2013, he joined the ibis brands teams, as the Technical Vice-President for all Europe.

Since January 2014, Damien is leading the Group Global Design department. His major challenge today is to define the Design strategy for each Brand and ensure to reinforce the brand equity and brand identity.

Fond of cuisine since its childhood and later on of board sports, Damien Perrot’s main objective is to bring his team and the group strategy beyond hospitality traditional boarders in terms of design. Always respecting operational obligations, the Global Design department is increasingly looking for creativity to build experiences and arouse emotions while also increasing the performance for our investors.

Dieter Brell is a founding member of the interdisciplinary design office 3deluxe, which is among the most cutting-edge representatives of the German design avantgarde. For more than 15 years the Wiesbaden agency, which has offshoots in Miami, Dubai and Bangkok, has been breaking new ground in architecture, interior design and corporate design. Its seemingly organic design language, complex multimedia installations, and iconic buildings have proven to be stylistically very influential even at the international level. As creative director, Dieter Brell is responsible for numerous renowned projects worldwide such as the D’fly store in New York, the architecture of the Leonardo Glass Cube, the Cocoon Club for techno icon Sven Väth, the Butterfly Pavilion in Dubai, award-winning restaurant designs for Michelin-starred chef Mario Lohninger, the V-Plaza urban development project in Lithuania, to name but a few. “My team and I work to make the world more beautiful. We aim to inspire and heighten people’s awareness,and we believe in the positive impact of modern design.” (Dieter Brell)

• Since 2010 Chief Executive Officer of the German Sustainable Building Council
• Winner of the W.I.R.E. Award 2019 (Women In Real Estate) of the Heuer Dialog GmbH
• Winner of the Eco Innovator Award 2019 of the Global Green Economic Forum

Born in 1968, Elisabetta Trezzani studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milan and graduated in 1994. She joined RPBW in Genoa in 1998 working initially on the design of the Aurora Place office and residential buildings in Sydney. She was subsequently involved in the design and construction of the addition to the High Museum in Atlanta, where she ran the site office until the project completion in 2005.

Together with Mark Carroll, she led the teams working on the new Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge. She was the Partner in charge of the SoHo residential tower project in New York, completed in March 2019. She also worked on the RPBW exhibitions in Rome, Atlanta, Milan and New York.

She is currently leading the 555 Howard Street hotel project in San Francisco, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles and the 540 West 21st Street residential project in New York including David Zwirner Gallery .

Elisabetta became a Partner in 2011 and was appointed member of the board in 2014.

Eskild Andersen is the CEO of Nordic – Office of Architecture and he is on the board of directors of Nordic’s Denmark office. Andersen is also a part of the management group of Norway’s largest engineering consultancy firm, Norconsult. As an architect, Andersen specialises in large scale, high complexity infrastructure and urbanisation projects, with experience spanning residential, transport, commercial mixed use, as well as military projects. He was responsible for the architectural team designing the new 3,6 bn NOK passenger terminal at Bergen Airport Flesland in Norway, several building contracts for the expansion of Oslo International Airport, as well as several complex master plan projects. He is a part of Nordic’s internal professional advisory group, a much sought after speaker and regularly lectures at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Ian was elected Managing Director of Broadway Malyan Holdings Ltd in 2019. He joined the practice in 1999 and has been a Director of Broadway Malyan Holdings Ltd since 2007. In 2016, he was invited to join the Executive Committee and appointed Chair of the UK region after spending six years running the practice’s Middle East operation.

During his time in the Middle East, Ian led the design and delivery of a range of complex, mixed-use projects such as the high-profile Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium project, a 26,000 seat showpiece stadium in Abu Dhabi with connected retail, hotel and residential. He also led Broadway Malyan’s work on the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) Future Schools Programme as well as the Prototype Schools Programme for the Qatari government. Together these have led to the rollout of state of the art schools across the Middle East.

With a passionate interest in the challenges facing a fast-developing world, Ian focuses on the social and cultural, as well as the technological aspects of design and within the practice he was the driving force in transferring Broadway Malyan to an Employee Owned Trust in 2016.

Jamie’s diverse experience spans 20 years in the UK, Asia and Middle East. As a designer, he believes successful placemaking is about seamlessly integrating mixed-use facilities into communities where people can come together and connect.

Previously Jamie worked at Squire and Partners, 10 Design and Glenn Howells Architects, where he delivered the 2007 Stirling Prize nominated Savill Garden building.

His portfolio includes the masterplanning and regeneration of the Brains Brewery site at Central Quay Cardiff where residential, workspace, education and leisure were woven around a central square and transport node. His other notable projects include a leisure-led new mixed use development in West London, the design of the new town centre retail experience in Oxfordshire and two innovative new retail led mixed use projects in central London. At city level, Jamie is leading a number of large scale urban regeneration and City Districts in the UK and beyond, commercializing and animating public and private space.

Jan Schellhoff is a Director and Senior Architect at UNStudio. He studied at the TU Delft and the Rheinisch Westfälische Technical University in Aachen where he received his Diploma in Architecture. Since joining UNStudio in 2007 he has been involved in projects in Germany, the Netherlands, India, UK,
Russia and Australia with a focus on complex mixed-use buildings in the inner city and urban design visions.

Jan’s focus is the creation of strong narratives informing unique design scenarios. Developing an active, sustainable and inclusive city through strategic vertical density. He is fascinated by the opportunity to create spaces and cities that have a positive impact on global questions as well as on the everyday life of people through great design.

Besides the project work Jan is passionate about being an active part in shaping the future of UNStudio. Through his involvement in the HR team, his lead of the knowledge platform for innovative organizations and the project manager platform he strives to create an innovative and a fun place to work.

Currently Jan is leading mixed use projects in Munich, Melbourne and Rotterdam.

Johannes studied architecture at the Technical University of Aachen graduating 1998. During his career as an architect, he specialized in the construction of buildings primarily within the health care sector. With HDR, Johannes serves as the Managing Director for Germany, leading business operations, corporate development, and sitting on the global HDR management team.

Company Profile:

For us, architecture is – besides the language – one of the greatest cultural achievements of mankind. It goes beyond meeting the basic needs of the individual, such as shelter, safety, and security, to reflect the relationship of human beings to their environment. It embodies human conceptions of space, structure and connectivity.

HDR was founded in 1917 and flourished under the leadership of engineers Henningson, Durham and Richardson, who created civil engineering structures that reorganised and improved the built environment. This idea continues to drive our global HDR network.

Worldwide, HDR‘s designers, architects and engineers work alongside clients to develop integrated strategies and sustainable solutions for complex problems in the fields of health, civil engineering, science and technology. This is reflected throughout our 100 year history and in who we are today with more than 10,000 employees worldwide and more than 1,000 completed projects in Germany alone.

Kirsten is the London studio’s Managing Partner; overseeing the development of the studio as it continues to grow. Kirsten is a highly experienced architect with over 25 years’ experience in architecture, strategic planning, urban design and regeneration in sensitive environments within the arts, sports and master planning sectors. She brings insight and creativity to the development of strategic projects, and she demonstrates strong conceptual judgment when integrating buildings into sensitive settings, both urban and rural.

Genuine innovation and architectural distinction distinguish Kirsten’s projects, which are founded on the insightful translation of client and stakeholder objectives. Her work has been acknowledged for its subtle response to place, the pre-eminence of the cultural agenda and its unique expressive and material qualities. She was shortlisted for the AJ Woman Architect of the Year award in 2014.

She is currently developing the Koç Contemporary Art Museum → in Istanbul, and a new grandstand for Curragh Racecourse →.

Kirsten is a creative and collaborative design leader who is capable of inspiring her teams and collaborating with engineering, construction and client teams to achieve optimum solutions. She has significant experience in managing complex stakeholder environments, and she is skilled at thoroughly understanding the impact of strategic, regional and political drivers.

Her work demonstrates a clear understanding that commercial viability must be balanced with the demands of local plans and the requirements of the local community to deliver tangible legacy benefits. Project examples include the Mönchengladbach urban regeneration strategy, the Wimbledon Master Plan →, the Gilston Park Estate Master Plan, Didcot Garden Town and the regeneration programme for Hammersmith Town Centre.

Lennaart Sirag was educated at the Technical University Delft. He gathered professional experience over 20 years in the  Netherlands and Germany. Throughout his career, he contributed to a variety of large scale, mixed-use projects from the first concept to the final realization. He gained profound skills in architectural design, general planning and technical due diligence.

He previously worked on large scale turnkey projects in urban environments. This resulted in a deep understanding of processes, regulations and stakeholders within the field of planning and project realization in Germany.

In his position as Director for the Berlin office, Lennaart oversees the projects in German-speaking countries in the realization phase.

‘’Build environments in Germany reach highest standards of technological quality. At the same time, they tend to be more monotonous than abroad. It is a great pleasure to mix things up with the spectacular, vivid, sustainable and colourful approach of MVRDV archtitecture and urbanism.’’

Prof. Michael Schumacher, born 1957, founded together with Till Schneider their architecture practice schneider+schumacher in Frankfurt, Germany in1988. The office first gained an international reputation with the notably red Info-Box in Berlin, which marked the German reunification. The Städel Museum extension of 2012, this time in Frankfurt, gained worldwide critical acclaim.

Having completed his architectural studies at the University of Kaiserslautern followed by a postgraduate program at the Städel Academy in Frankfurt under Peter Cook, Michael Schumacher worked at Foster Associates in London. From 1999-2000 he taught at the Städel Academy as a guest professor. Since 2007 he has been appointed professor at the Faculty of Architecture in Hannover and between 2004 -2009 Prof. Schumacher was chairman of the BDA Hessen (Bund Deutscher Architekten). He is a member of the AIV.

Ever since 2008, schneider+schumacher have successfully merged several companies and services under one roof: Architecture, Urban Design, Building and Project Management, Design and Parametrics. They now have further offices in Vienna, Austria and Shenzhen and Tianjin, China.

An architect born into the profession, Monica Armani continuously experienced the synthesis between planning, observation, and research from a very young age.

Born in one of the key locations of Italian Rationalism, she was trained in the family firm on the principle that the equation of detail is the primary point of reference: form, function, and technologies are refined to achieve the best possible balance.

Industrial design became a natural continuation of this experience. In 1998, Monica Armani brought a brilliant self-production experience to life with “progetto1”, a cross-cutting system/concept encompassing the home and workspaces and anticipating the times. In 2005, “progetto1” became part of the B&B Italia collection.

Heritage, vision, precision, and technological research have produced a unique style. The Monica Armani studio is engaged in architecture and interior design, industrial design, and Timely Architecture. Its design process generates concentric circles, which intersect and merge together in continuous cross-fertilization. This produces a signature style that is always recognizable.

Monica Armani designs collections of objects and accessories for Italian, European, and American companies.

In the field of architecture, she designed the Excelsior in Milan and exclusive residences. Observing the huge change underway, she has created a movement for a new design approach: Timely Architecture — building lightly for a scheduled timeframe; the “emblem” of this approach was the Corriere della Sera pavilion at Expo 2015 in Milan.

She has won several awards and has been published in the international press

Natasha Bonugli has experience of workplace design that crosses continents. Trained as an architect in the US and RIBA Part 3 qualified in the UK, she has spent the majority of her 17 year career focusing on the design and delivery of interior projects of all scales. Based in London the past 15 years, she had managed and developed a number of high-performance design teams to deliver award winning schemes across the globe. In 2015 Natasha joined Unispace to help grow the design team and elevate the brand across Europe and her remit has recently expanded into a global role. As Unispace’s Global Principal Design, Natasha provides creative design direction to all studios across the northern hemisphere, driving design excellence and thought leadership across the business.

With extensive cross-sector industry experience, Natasha is driven by a passion to craft progressive and innovative design solutions that focus on generating design solutions which react and place evidence behind intuition – science and storytelling.

She is widely known as a key influencer and an inspiration within the London workplace design industry. Together with the Unispace team she is challenging established conventions and bringing its singular methodology to bear on leading projects around the world

Architect Patrick Lüth has been managing the Snøhetta Studio in Innsbruck since 2011. In 2005, after studying architecture in Innsbruck, he started as an intern in the Oslo office. There he participated in numerous international architectural competitions and some of Snøhetta’s most popular design submissions. He expanded the Innsbruck studio into an office with around 25 employees. He is responsible, among other things, for the Swarovski projects “Crystal Worlds Evolution” and Manufaktur, an innovative building for production and creative collaboration, for the design study for a new museum quarter in Bolzano, the master plan for a new city quarter in Budapest, the conversion of the site of an old tobacco factory in Verona, and for hotel and tourism projects.

Patrik Schumacher is principal of Zaha Hadid Architects and is leading the firm since Zaha Hadid’s passing in March 2016. He joined Zaha Hadid in 1988 and was seminal in developing Zaha Hadid Architects to become a 400 strong global architecture and design brand.

Patrik Schumacher is a winner of the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Stirling Prize for excellence in architecture and an academician of the Berlin Academy of Arts.

In 1996 he founded the Design Research Laboratory at the Architectural Association in London where he continues to teach. Patrik Schumacher holds a PhD in Cultural Science and has published over 100 articles to architectural journals and anthologies, as well as a two-volume treatise on architecture.

Born in 1966, studied architecture at the elite university of Karlsruhe and the Düsseldorf academy of art. His professors were Jo Coenen, Dieter Kienast, Ernst Kasper, Elia Zenghelis, Josef Kleihues and Laurids Ortner. Christian Heuchel has been a lecturer in art and architecture at the Düsseldorf academy of art since 2000. He is a founder of the rheinflügel architects’ association and proprietor of the bHK artists’ office. He headed the Cologne office O&O Baukunst since 2006. He lives in Cologne.

Steven’s natural flair for business was apparent early on in his career. While studying interior design in Edinburgh, he was chosen by the Department of Trade and Industry to enrol on a course for future business leaders. This unique experience put Steven on a path to leadership, and within a few years of graduating, he was at the helm of a Dubai-based design firm, which later became part of Perkins and Will. Making a place for himself in an emerging market, set him up with a strong entrepreneurial spirit and a determination to succeed.

 Upon returning to the UK to lead our London studio, Steven has steadily transformed the team, and outlook, to that of a globally-minded business, with a passion for establishing deep and meaningful roots in the UK. With London being a global powerhouse for architecture and design, Steven intends, through design innovation, diversity, and thought leadership to make our London studio a leading voice in the UK built environment industry.

“As we grow our business and networks across the Europe region, taking part in this event is going to be a great opportunity to build connections with the industry. I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts on the business side of architecture, and hearing from architecture and design colleagues from around the globe.”

Thomas Willemeit studied architecture at the Technical University
Braunschweig, where he graduated as Dipl.-Ing. Arch. in 1997, and
partook the masterclass for architecture and urban planning at the
Bauhaus Dessau. Besides his successful career in the architectural
field, he won numerous national prizes as a violin player and a
chorister. He was a visiting professor for architecture at the RWTH Aachen and at Peter Behrens School of Art in Düsseldorf and has been a visiting professor at the TU Delft in 2017/18
In 1998 Thomas Willemeit established GRAFT in Los Angeles together with Lars Krückeberg and Wolfram Putz. With further offices in Berlin and Shanghai, GRAFT has been commissioned to
design and manage a wide range of projects. GRAFT has won numerous national and international awards and earned international reputation throughout its existence. In 2009 the GRAFT founding partners co-founded Solarkiosk AG together with Andreas Spiess, which affiliate companies are
incorporated in ten countries worldwide today. With GRAFT Brandlab Thomas Willemeit, Wolfram Putz, and
Lars Krückeberg established a branding agency together with Linda Stannieder in 2014. The agency operates at the interface of architecture, design, and branding. Since 2015 GRAFT offers sustainable housing systems in modular design in order to quickly construct accommodations for
refugees. The company called Heimat2 was founded together with three other companies working in project development and communication. Thomas Willemeit, Lars Krückeberg and Wolfram Putz together
with Marianne Birthler curated the German Pavilion in Venice at the Architecture Biennale 2018.

Born in Rostock, Germany, Volker Mau finished his apprenticeship in banking at the Deutsche Bank in 1997. He changed his career path to architecture and obtained his university diploma at the Technische Universität Dresden in 2003. Internships in Switzerland led him to Barbara Holzer and Tristan Kobler. After the fusion of their two companies to Holzer Kobler Architekturen in 2004 he was employed as senior architect until 2008 and responsible as project lead for real estate development projects. In 2008 Volker Mau was appointed to a member of the executive committee and is since then leading the architecture department in Zurich.

He was responsible for projects such as Rex Max Thun, a conversion and new construction of a former industrial site, or the hospital complex University Hospital for Geriatric Medicine and Rehabilitation Felix Platter in Basel. In 2013 Volker Mau was appointed as partner at Holzer Kobler Architekturen GmbH. He is responsible for designing and planning of the digitalisation processes.

Werner Frosch is a partner at Henning Larsen Architects and managing director of the Munich branch. He is an experienced project manager and project director, and has managed various large-scale projects in Scandinavia and Germany, which are characterized by sustainability above average.
In addition to his daily tasks, Werner Frosch gives numerous lectures, and acts as member of architectural juries. He is committed to convey architecture and the quality in the physical environment. Werner Frosch is chairman of the Deutscher Werkbund Bayern.