Office Design Challenge / Edition #2 Jury panel!

Buildner is excited to announce the jury panel for the second edition of its Office Design Challenge / Edition #2 international competition!

Julia Murphy, SOM
Farid Esmaeil, X Architects
Frank Fliskow, Make Architects
Erinn Farrell, The Coven
Harsha Kotak, Women in Office Design
Dr Juriaan van Meel, BriefBuilder
Kourosh Salehi, LWK + PARTNERS
Katrina Yin, JDS Development Group
David Zhai, WeWork



Julia Murphy is Managing Partner and USA + Canada East Practice Leader at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill - SOM. Julia Murphy, who is based in the firm’s NY office, has built a career around two main goals: to solve large-scale architectural problems, and to help move the design and real estate industries toward equality for women and minorities. She is an expert in solving the physical, financial, and administrative challenges of building in New York City, and has founded multiple career development programs for women. As an architect and project manager, Julia thrives on complexity. She has taken the helm of some of the largest projects in the city, including Manhattan West, a 7-million-square-foot development built over active railroad tracks. Her work includes adaptive reuse, hospitality, higher education buildings, residential towers, and commercial offices for major companies including Citigroup and The Walt Disney Company. She has a diverse range of project responsibilities, from day-to-day interaction with clients and consultants to maintaining staffing, schedules, and budgets. Her growing list of contributions to equity began when she co-founded the SOM Women’s Initiative in 2011 to cultivate and promote the development and success of women at SOM and within the design disciplines. She also founded the SOM Shadowship program, served as chair of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation—where she currently serves on the Board of Trustees as Chair of the Nominating Committee—and represents the design profession on the WX New York Women Executives in Real Estate events committee. She is the Chair of the New York ULI Mixed Use Green Local Product Council.


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 the Venice Biennale 2008, 2014 and 2016, Louisiana museum of modern Art and Archiprix.


Katrina Yin, AIA, is an architect and design manager at JDS Development Group. She is committed to furthering avenues of interdisciplinary thinking between architecture, design, urbanism, real estate development and marketing. Formally trained as an architect, she worked at boutique design firms before becoming a licensed real estate salesperson and development associate for Alloy Development. While at Alloy, she led residential interior architecture design for 100 Flatbush, New York City's first all-electric tower, and 168 Plymouth. Her experience spans the full design, development, construction, sales and stabilization cycle of various landmark projects -- proving the value of a design-integrated perspective from conceptual ideation through to market reception.  She is currently managing design for 888 Brickell, set to be Miami's tallest building upon completion. She holds a Master of Architecture and Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Yale University and Yale College, respectively. She is a mentor at Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale, a team leader for the ACE Mentor Program of Greater NY.


Erinn Farrell is Co-Founder and Partner at The Coven. Erinn is relentless in her belief that we are stronger together. A lover of people, process and design, she specializes in encouraging high-performing cultures by focusing on the intersection of empowerment, placemaking, and design. Her efforts help colleagues and partners unlock their talents and create a joyful ruckus. She believes our success lies in showing up unapologetically curious, honest, and optimistic. Her distinct leadership approach has helped her win a bunch of fancy awards across her career as an Advertising Executive, COO of On Being, and now as the Co-Founder and Partner of The Coven and Principal of Erinn Farrell Design.


Frank Fliskow is an Architect at Make Architects in London. Frank joined Make in 2004 and is an architect with over 30 years of international experience. He has been involved in a wide range of masterplanning, healthcare, residential, transport, hotel and office schemes, including 20 Ropemaker Street and Chobham Manor. Frank is an expert in large-scale workplace schemes, major residential buildings, and masterplanning. His focus is on bringing together wellbeing and sustainability to create happier places for people to live and work as a community and a responsible part of the environment. His projects have won numerous accolades, including the NLA Mayor’s Prize for the Chobham Manor Masterplan.


Harsha Kotak is the Founder of Women in Office Design and an international interior designer and workplace consultant. With a lifelong passion for design, Harsha has worked in the workplace design industry for over 20 years and has practiced in the US, India and the UK. Her portfolio of work displays a variety of projects showcasing her expertise in Design & Client Management. She has worked on some prestigious projects like designing for the White House and Pentagon in the US, and for FedEx and the US Embassy in New Delhi, India. Harsha is currently a workplace projects consultant with K2 Space in London and is responsible for helping their global clients from the finance, tech & media sector. Having worked in three continents, in 2018 Harsha united her network of connections to create the organisation WOD (Women in Office Design). WOD provides a dedicated platform for women to attend events, share ideas and connect with others in the design community. Today WOD is a global networking group for women in the workplace design industry with chapters in the UK (England & Scotland), Europe (Spain & Italy) and India. Harsha travels globally to host educational events and to grow the WOD network. She started international chapters in Spain, Italy & India for WOD and has been invited as a keynote speaker at international festivals like the London Festival of Architecture, Valencia Habitat Fair, Barcelona Design Museum, Clerkenwell Design Week and many more. She was nominated as the NRI of the year by the Times of India in 2016 and more recently she has been nominated as a jury member on several design awards in the UK, Europe and India: The British Institute of Interior Design Awards (UK), Designer UK Awards (UK), Irish Times Fit Out Awards (Ireland), Economic Times Design Awards (India), Frame Awards (Amsterdam) and many others. Along with championing women empowerment for designers and architects in the industry. she has recently co-founded the Sustainable Design Collective to spread awareness and education about sustainability in the workplace design industry.


Dr Juriaan van Meel is Co-founder of BriefBuilder. He is an expert in the field of architectural briefing and workplace design. He has worked on building projects across the world and taught at various universities. Juriaan is (co)author of multiple books, amongst which the Activity-Based Working Practice Guide (2020), Briefing for Buildings (2018) and Workplaces Today (2015).


Kourosh Salehi is MENA Design Director at LWK + PARTNERS. He is a British architect, urbanist and educator with over 25 years of international experience in the UK, Asia and the Middle East. He has led the design process for a number of urban skylines in cities like London, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Doha: his last completed tower design being the “Habtoor City Towers” in Dubai. His latest bridge design “Hanging Garden Bridge” for the Dubai Creek, has received royal endorsement and been featured in a number of international design journals. As an active academic, Kourosh has published and presented a number talks on Urbanism and architecture globally, and is the author of the “Architectural Design Guidelines” for the Emirates of Sharjah. 


David Zhai is the Global Director of Architecture & Design Technology at WeWork, where he oversees a diverse group of designers, and technologists that operate between product and process, and is responsible for the creation, and rollout of WeWork's space products, standards, and space data across the globe. Prior to this role, he was a partner at Co-office, a vertically integrated design firm and was the Head of Design Operations at Integrated Projects, a spatial data company serving real estate owners and operators. David comes from a design and building information management background, where he has combined design and technology at such practices as Bjarke Ingels Group, and Grimshaw Architects to design notable projects including Google HQ, and Disney's Tomorrowland. David is a recipient of the Graham Foundation grant on his research into company and organizational culture and its effects on workplace environments, domestic life, and urban transformation.David holds a Master of Architecture from Columbia University GSAPP, where he was the recipient of the Kinne Fellowship Award, the Lowenfish Memorial Award, and the Design Excellence Award, and where he has taught in the Masters program in both the Core and Advanced studios.

The Office Design Challenge / Edition #2 is the second in an annual competition series in which participants are tasked with exploring the work environment. The jury will be looking for design projects that use architecture as a tool to improve a worker’s wellbeing as well as their productivity.