MICROHOME 2026

Will Beilharz is the Founder of Artistree Home, a treehouse design and construction firm, and Co-Founder of Artistree Hospitality Group, a regenerative resort development and operations company. His path as a designer and builder began early, constructing a four-story, nineteen-sided off-grid home with his father inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s Synergetics. Beilharz’s work has been featured in Dwell, The New York Times, Lonely Planet, and Travel & Leisure. He has received awards from the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and Artistree earned multiple top honors at the Hospitality Design Awards in 2016, including Best in Show, Best in Sustainability, and Best in Lifestyle. As a developer, he focuses on regenerative land stewardship, sustainable resource management, and nature-based experiential education. Artistree’s notable projects include Playa Viva in Mexico, the Phoenix House in Hawaii, and Cypress Valley in Texas. In 2023, the studio completed the Spyglass™ treehouse, suspended among the redwoods of Sonoma County, California.

Sandra del Bove is Group Head of Innovation at the Kingspan Innovation Centre - IKON, a hub in Ireland dedicated to medium to long-term ideas, developments, and innovations in the area of energy efficiency, decarbonization, and circularity. Born and raised in Germany, Sandra pursued her studies in Austria and Ireland, enriching her expertise in strategic marketing. Her career at Kingspan has seen her work across multiple divisions and countries in Europe, collaborating with teams and customers worldwide. At IKON, she is at the forefront of evaluating emerging data, insights, and ideas, leveraging state-of-the-art equipment and rigorous experimentation. Sandra’s approach is deeply rooted in a blend of technical expertise and market feedback, allowing her to assess the viability of innovations, from exploring bio-based materials to enabling the next era of digital building design, at every stage. Her commitment to aligning these innovations with Kingspan's sustainability programme ensures that each idea is thoroughly vetted and refined to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving built environment.

Mitchell Joachim, Ph.D., Assoc. AIA, is the Co-Founder of Terreform ONE and Full Professor of Practice at NYU, where he also serves as Co-Chair of Global Design. His work explores the intersection of architecture, biology, and urban resilience. Previously, he was an architect at the studios of Frank Gehry, I.M. Pei, and Moshe Safdie. Mitchell is a TED Senior Fellow and recipient of numerous awards including the Fulbright Scholarship, NEA Grant for Arts Projects, LafargeHolcim Acknowledgement Prize, and Time Magazine’s Best Invention of the Year for his work with MIT Smart Cities. His design work has been exhibited at MoMA, the Venice Biennale, Seoul Biennale, and MASS MoCA. He is the co-author of several books, including Design with Life, XXL-XS: New Directions in Ecological Design, and Global Design: Elsewhere Envisioned. Mitchell holds advanced degrees from MIT, Harvard, Columbia, and UB, and has held faculty positions at institutions such as the University of Toronto, Columbia, and Parsons.

Jane Lea is an award-winning architect and the founder and Principal of Brooklyn-based Lea Architecture. The firm pursues design as a tool for creating spatial and social confidence. This means longevity of both structure and community—and her leadership holds the practice responsible for reaching beyond the activity of architecture to fulfill its projects on these terms. Their full-service design solutions see constraints as the greatest opportunity for imaginative design, revealing the latent potential behind every challenge. Jane is a graduate of Columbia University, where she holds a Master of Architecture. Prior to starting her practice in 2017, she spent 10 years working for firms in New York City, including eight years at Architecture Research Office. Jane is co-founder of Common Form, a women-led, community-focused development firm based in NYC; a founding member of Design Advocates, a non-profit collective of experienced design firms collaboratively working on projects to serve the public good; and the designer partner for The All Along Project, a public-space initiative seeking to balance the representation of monuments in parks by honoring local women. Jane has taught at Cooper Union, Parsons, and Pratt, and is a licensed architect in New York and in her home state of Pennsylvania.

Ignacio de la Vega is a co-founder of delavegacanolasso, the Madrid-based architecture studio he leads together with Pilar Cano Lasso. Their work is driven by a vision of architecture as landscape—buildings that do not merely occupy a site but evolve with it, gaining character through material aging, precision, and environmental integration. The studio’s approach combines in-situ construction with highly controlled prefabrication, allowing projects to adapt naturally to their context while achieving a high level of technical and material refinement. Alongside their bespoke residential and architectural work in Spain, Ignacio co-developed tini, an internationally recognized system of 100% industrialized architecture made in Spain, with projects across Europe and the United States. Tini explores a new model of agile, sustainable, and high-quality prefabrication, where workshop-level precision meets site-specific adaptation. delavegacanolasso’s work has been widely published in leading international media including Dwell, Dezeen, Arquitectura Viva, AD, Designboom, and Elle Decor, and the studio has been featured in exhibitions, lectures, and conferences for its innovative contribution to modular, sustainable, and landscape-driven architecture. Through both his built work and research into industrialized construction, Ignacio brings to Buildner a perspective that bridges craft, technology, sustainability, and architectural longevity.

Steffen Welsch is the Principal of Steffen Welsch Architects, an award-winning Melbourne-based practice specialising in residential, educational, and community architecture. With nearly thirty years of experience, his work is known for its clarity, restraint, and strong commitment to environmental and social responsibility. Growing up in East Germany, Steffen came to architecture via an unconventional path. He studied at the former Bauhaus School, worked in Vienna, Austria, and London, UK, and later migrated to Australia. His international education and cross-continental practice continue to inform a design approach that is deeply contextual, culturally attuned, and attentive to the long-term consequences of building. Since founding his practice in 2003, Steffen has embedded sustainability, climate action, and biodiversity care into every stage of project delivery. He sees sustainability not as static, but as a discipline of focus and continual learning. His work aims for low-carbon, high-performance material systems—including rammed earth, bio-based and recycled materials—low-impact operation, and longevity beyond conventional life-cycle assumptions. Asked about style, Steffen often cites Austrian architect Hermann Czech: “Architecture is background, and a building should only speak when it is spoken to.” In his view, buildings are enablers—quiet frameworks that support social, cultural, and economic life while improving ecological outcomes on and beyond the site. Alongside his practice, Steffen maintains a strong commitment to advocacy and community engagement. He co-founded a primary school in Melbourne and is a founding member and current Secretary of Australian Architects Declare, an organisation committed to reducing carbon emissions and restoring biodiversity through architectural practice.