Hospice – Home for the Terminally Ill / Edition #4 Jury panel!

Julien De Smedt, JDS Architects
Alan Dunlop, Alan Dunlop Architect
Susanne Siepl-Coates, Kansas State University
Nirit Pilosof, University of Cambridge
Rubén García Rubio, studioVRA
Paul Monaghan, AHMM
Rion Philbin, No So Studio
Sonsoles Vela Navarro, studioVRA
David Charles Reat, University of Strathclyde

Julien De Smedt is the founder and director of JDS Architects based in Copenhagen and Brussels. An architect and designer whose work  is internationally spread, Julien’s commitment to the exploration of  new architectural models and programs has helped re-energize the  contemporary architecture discussion. Seminal projects include the VM Housing Complex, the Mountain  Dwellings, Lille’s Maison Stéphane Hessel, the Iceberg, Kalvebod Waves  and the Holmenkollen Ski Jump. Born in Brussels to French art enthusiast Jacques Léobold and Belgian  artist Claude De Smedt, Julien attended schools in Brussels, Paris, and  Los Angeles before receiving his diploma from the Bartlett School of  Architecture in London. Prior to founding JDS Architects, Julien worked with Rem Koolhaas in  Rotterdam, and co-founded the architecture firm PLOT with Bjarke Ingels  in Copenhagen. In 2013 he co-founded with William Ravn the agenda driven design label Makers With Agendas, addressing matters of society to  create meaningful products. Julien has been a guest lecturer in numerous venues worldwide and  a visiting professor at Copenhagen’s Art Academy, Rice University in Houston, Texas, the University of Kentucky, MIT in Cambridge, USA, and  at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. His work is published  and exhibited internationally. He published the monograph PIXL to XL and released 2 influential books:  Agenda, Can We Sustain our Ability to Crisis? and Built Unbuilt. Among other awards and recognition, Julien received the Henning  Larsen Prize in 2003 and the Eckersberg medal in 2005, the Maaskant  Award in 2009 and the Prix Dejean in 2014 from the French Academy of Architecture. In 2004 the Stavanger Concert Hall received the Golden Lion as the  World’s Best Concert Hall at the Venice Biennale, the Maritime youth  House won the AR+D award in London and was nominated for the Mies  van der Rohe award. The Mountain received the World Architecture  Festival Award and MIPIM Award in 2009, while the Iceberg received the latter in 2013 along with the Architizer A+ Award and the Best Building Award in 2015 from Archdaily. More recently Maison Stéphane Hessel was among  the best Hotels at the 2016 MIPIM Awards and the Hangzhou Gateway  was a 2017 Architizer A+ finalist. In 2019 The Holmenkollen Ski Jump  received the Houen Foundation Award, Norway’s most important award for architecture.

Alan Dunlop of Alan Dunlop Architect is an architect with a portfolio of award winning buildings; including the internationally renowned Hazelwood School for children and young people who are dual sensory impaired: blind and deaf. Alan is a fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and an alumnus of the Glasgow School of Art. He has written extensively on architecture and urban design in a number of professional journals and had peer reviewed papers on architecture published internationally.

Susanne Siepl-Coates received her Diplom Ingenier (Dipl.Ing.) degree in architecture at the University of Hannover, Germany in 1979 and her Master of Architecture (M. Arch) degree as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley in 1982. At Berkeley she studied with the internationally renowned architect and educator Christopher Alexander and worked at his Center for Environmental Structure.Siepl-Coates was a member of the architecture faculty at Kansas State University for over thirty years. Her teaching focused on the exploration of the relationships between the built environment and human health/well-being. In collaboration with Gary J. Coates, Siepl-Coates examined the health-supporting aspects in the architecture of Swedish architect Erik Asmussen, with special emphasis on the Vidar Clinic in Järna. She has reported on her research at international conferences and in papers and articles published in professional and scholarly journals.

Dr Nirit Pilosof is an architect and researcher exploring the intersection of Healthcare, Technology, and Architecture. Nirit is the Head of Research in Innovation and Transformation at Sheba Medical Centre in Israel. She is a Faculty Member at the Coller School of Management at Tel Aviv University and an Associate of Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS) at the University of Cambridge in the UK. Nirit also works as a consultant for international healthcare organizations and serves as the executive member of Israel at the UIA Public Health Group. She holds a Ph.D. from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, a Post-Professional M.Arch from McGill University, and an EDAC from the Center for Health Design in the USA. Nirit gained experience in the design process of major medical facilities as a project manager at leading architecture firms in Israel and Canada and won international awards, including the prestigious AIA Academy of Architects for Health award, the American Hospital Association (AHA) graduate fellowship, and the Azrieli Foundation fellowship.

Rubén García Rubio is an architect and co-founder of studioVRA based in Zaragoza, Spain. He holds Ph.Ds. in Architecture from the University of Valladolid and the University of Roma Tre. He has been a “Visiting Scholar” at the American Academy in Rome. Currently, he is Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at Tulane University. He previously taught in several schools of architecture and institutions in Europe and the Middle East, where he was able to work on projects that combined his teaching objectives, research interests, and professional work. His work has been distinguished with several architectural awards, both design and built, and published in international architectural magazines. He is Editor-in-Chief of the architectural weblog CajondeArquitecto.com.

Paul Monaghan is Director at AHMM in London. His projects at all scales have been recognised as exemplars of outstanding design, collaborative creativity, applied technology, research and sustainability, such as North London Hospice and Kentish Town Health Centre. His current and recent key projects include the redevelopment of Television Centre in west London; New Scotland Yard for the Metropolitan Police; and Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre. Paul led AHMM’s work on the RIBA Stirling Prize-winning Burntwood School in south London, as well as two other Stirling-shortlisted buildings. In addition to his project work, Paul is an active speaker, teacher and juror. He is a visiting professor at the Bartlett and Sheffield schools of architecture; he has also been Vice Chair of the CABE Schools Design Review Panel and is on the CABE National Design Review Panel. He has been chair of the Young Architect of the Year awards, chaired the RIBA awards panel until 2010, and was a judge for the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2016. Paul recently received an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Sheffield, and has been appointed the Liverpool City Region Design Champion.

Rion Philbin is the founder and Creative Director of Berlin-based No So Studio (and previously founder of So & So Studio, an anonymous and celebrated design practice). According to Philbin, “We want to connect with people who understand the value of design through our playful creative processes: fun, iterative and at times inappropriate.” His projects include the Casa-mac project, a  home in Italy for a blind woman that orients the spaces around a singular corridor spine, to minimize potential maze effect and ensure efficient movement.

Sonsoles Vela Navarro is an architect and co-founder of studioVRA based in Zaragoza, Spain. She holds a BArch from the University of Valladolid, a Master of Science in Architecture and Sustainable Environment from the University of Extremadura, an MBA from Kühnel Business School, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Design and Digital Architecture from the San Jorge University. Sonsoles is a practicing architect with 15 years of experience working alongside private clients and builders to develop architectural designs on residential, commercial and healthcare projects. Her work has been distinguished with several architectural awards, both design and built, and published in international architectural magazines. Currently, she is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Tulane University.

David Charles Reat is Director of Cultural Studies (History & Theory) at the Department of Architecture, University of Strathclyde. He is a practicing architect and academic, currently concluding his PhD. With over 20 years of international teaching experience, Reat’s career is rooted in notable architectural practice. He has worked for prestigious offices such as James Stirling & Michael Wilford, contributing to projects like the British Embassy in Berlin and The Lowry in Salford. He also collaborated with Enric Miralles Benedetta Tagliabue/RMJM on the New Scottish Parliament Buildings in Edinburgh. At Strathclyde, Reat served as the Year 4 Director, where he led a series of hospice design projects. These projects challenged students to engage with Glasgow’s key public parks, fostering a unique intersection of architecture and public space.