Legendary Bird Home 2021 Competition Jury Panel!

Buildner Competition Organisers is proud to announce the jury panel for the Legendary Bird Home 2021 competition!

Ahmed Al-Ali, X Architects
Marco Barba, Marco Barba Design
Douglas Barnhard, Sourgrassbuilt
Andris Dekants, Latvian Ornithological Society
Farid Esmaeil, X Architects
Mark Gabbertas, Gabbertas Studio
James Krueger, HMC Architects
Heike Schlauch, Heike Schlauch raumhochrosen
Jolanta Uczarczyk, Uczarczyk
Chad Wright, Studio Chad Wright

Ahmed Al-Ali is an architect, researcher, and entrepreneur from the United Arab Emirates. He graduated from the American University of Sharjah with a degree in Architecture and immediately established the award-winning design firm, X Architects, in 2003. He is a strong proponent of Arab Identity and Culture and its translation into contemporary design. Ahmed’s research and design works are widely published and exhibited in renowned international publications and venues, he is a recurring critic and guest lecturer at various educational institutions. In 2019, Ahmed received the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture for his design of the Wasit Natural Reserve Visitor Center.

Marco Barba is a Mexican industrial designer and founder of Marco Barba Design based in the city of Merida, Yucatan. His passion for the design and development of products for good living has led him to face great challenges and develop projects with the aim of generating creative solutions materialized in high-impact products such as his KUKU birdhouse product. Thanks to this, he has managed to develop in various areas of design such as social impact products, furniture, technology, packaging and luxury items. He always seeks to implement solutions that comply with the bases of sustainability, be it economical, ecological and social.

Douglas Barnhard started Sourgrassbuilt birdhouses in 2016. His influences for his birdhouses are mid century modern developer Eichler and Frank Lloyd Wright’s design aesthetic mixed with the rich skate and surf cultures of Santa Cruz CA.

Andris Dekants is a project manager at the Latvian Ornithological Society.

Farid Esmaeil studied architecture at the American University of Sharjah School of Design. He co-founded X Architects in 2003 in Dubai. The studio research is focused on creating a built environment that is adaptive and contextual. Its sensible, yet critical design approach recognizes the inherent complexity in modern day building and harnesses this complexity to produce projects that are culturally robust, place sensitive and environmentally friendly. In 2019, Farid received the prestigious Aga Khan award for Architecture for the Wasit Natural Reserve Visitor Center project. He was also awarded the Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction 2008, the Arc Middle East award for Architecture 2009 and 2010 and the Cityscape Award for a sustainable master plan. Farid has lectured and in various universities and institutions worldwide and he is a regular guest critic. He was a speaker at TEDx in Abu Dhabi, Harvard University, University of Toronto and Doha Architecture Forum. He exhibited and contributed to Venice Biennale 2008, 2014 and 2016, Louisiana museum of modern Art and Archiprix.

Mark Gabbertas was born in Yorkshire in 1962 and came to the world of furniture design in a circuitous way having started his working life in advertising before changing career path to train as a cabinet maker. Apprenticed to Codrington Furniture and then with Stemmer and Sharp in the acclaimed Oblique Workshops in Hackney, it was Hackney he chose to found his own design/making studio in 1994. In 2001, he established the Gabbertas Studio in West London to focus on furniture design, before moving the main studio to the Oxfordshire countryside in 2016 and opening a further office in Milan. The Studio’s guiding proposition centres on the creation of character through simplicity. The Studio is known for its rigorous pursuit of solutions that have both a functional integrity and an enduring aesthetic in the belief that it is all too easy to shock, but much more difficult to please, such as its Gloster Birdhouse and feeder series.

James Krueger is a Design Principal in HMC Architects’ San Diego studio, and serves as the firm's Civic and Pre-K-12 Practices Design Principal leading designs for the firm. With more than 20 years’ experience working in studio, James brings a unique design perspective to the practice. What inspires James’ work is the idea that everything HMC builds has the opportunity to have a positive impact on the lives of each client. In a firm that focuses primarily in Education, Healthcare, and Civic markets, the facilities that HMC creates are focused on improving the fabric of the communities they serve.

Heike Schlauch is an architect and interior designer of Heike Schlauch raumhochrosen. She lives and works in Vorarlberg, Austria and Tenerife, Spain. Her focus is on building in social context including the participation of users. The tasks range from classic building construction to interior design to furniture and exhibition designs. Heike Schlauch completed her studies at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria in the masterclass of Prof. Hans Hollein and in Rosenheim, Germany. She volunteers in various institutions in the architectural context: the Chamber of Architects and Engineering Consultants Vorarlberg and Tyrol committee of female architects, is a board member of the Vorarlberg Architecture Institute and for many years as president of the Central Association of Architects. Her studio has designed the 'Vorarlberger Baukunst' birdhouse series.

Jolanta Uczarczyk is a designer, sculptor and photographer and runs Uczarczyk, through which she produces original, handmade works such as bird feeders, baskets and jewelry. Her Mocak Bird Feeder was inspired by the architecture of MOCAK - Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, where it is sold.

Chad Wright is a designer and founder of the multi-disciplinary laboratory Studio Chad Wright. Whether designing furniture, products, environments or conceptual objects and installations, the studio’s goal is to synthesize ideas with objects, poetics with relevance and person with product and place. A native Californian, Wright worked at some of San Francisco’s leading design studios before creating Studio Chad Wright in 2011. Wright's work has exhibited internationally and nationally, including Salone Del Mobile in Milan, ICFF in New York and throughout California. The studio’s portfolio includes the Attic birdhouse.

This is the second competition in a series aiming to raise awareness for the global environmental crisis. This competition will be a collaboration with Birdly – a socially-responsible startup that aims to support environmental activism worldwide through funds raised by selling bird homes. 

Back to Legendary Bird Home 2021 competition