The Architect's Chair Jury Panel!

Buildner is pleased to announce the jury panel for the Architect's Chair competition!

Johan Ansander, industrial designer
Rasmus Bækkel Fex, furniture designer
Boris Berlin, Boris Berlin Design
Anne Brandhøj, Bly Studio, Anne Brandhø
Mårten Claesson, Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects
Sarah Hossli, product designer
Lorenz Noelle, product designer
Li Xiang, X+Living
Takeshi Yamamura, YSLA YamamuraSanzLaviña Architects

Johan Ansander is an industrial designer, originally from Gothenburg and now based in Stockholm. His approach towards projects is often quite open. Initially he focuses on sculpting and shaping the product, trying not to be restricted by physical properties and material restrictions. He wants his sketching phase to be thorough and with great plasticity, shaping the product like it´s made out of clay. Iteration is important and always a fundamental part of his process. Gradually he begins looking at the project with more of a realistic view, letting himself be affected by the final materials properties. Ansander graduated from Konstack, University of Arts Craft and Design and has designed three products for Swedish furniture manufacturer Blå Station.

Rasmus Bækkel Fex is a furniture designer, He takes a highly conceptual approach to his work. He considers art and design as equals but positioned at opposite ends of the scale, and systematically seeks to explore and challenge genre conditions and boundaries and view furniture as functional sculpture. He graduated with an MFA from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, School of Design in 2012 with additional studies at Konstfack in Stockholm. Besides working with self-initiated projects in my studio in Copenhagen, he designs industrial produced furniture for companies such as Frama and Brdr. Krüger. In 2014, he was the co-founder of the RE F O R M Design Biennale, a curated exhibition showcasing cutting edge design.

Boris Berlin is a Designer and Partner of Copenhagen-based Boris Berlin Design, as well as KOMPLOT Design & ISKOS-BERLIN Design and a member of the Danish Design Council. He began his career in 1975 as an industrial and graphic designer at VNIITE in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg, Russia). In 1983 he moved to Denmark and founded Boris Berlin Design, in 1987 co- founded Komplot Design, and in 2010 co-founded partnership Iskos-Berlin Design. In his designs he focuses on experimenting with new technologies and materials exploring their possibilities and impact on design of everyday objects. The geography of his clients spreads from Denmark and Sweden to the USA and Japan including such companies as Gubi, Hay, Normann, Muuto, Fritz Hansen, Källemo, Tendo Mokko, Stylex Seating, Jot.Jot, Collect.studio, Icons of Denmark and others. He has received numerous design awards and his works are represented in design museums around the world, among them: Design Museum Denmark, Die Neue Sammlung - The International Design Museum Munich, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Vitra Design Museum, V&A Young, London. He was awarded The Thorvald Bindesbøll Medal by the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts for excellence in the fields of applied art and industrial design and received The Lifelong Honorary Grant of the Danish Arts Foundation. He has curated, designed and participated in numerous design exhibitions, led master classes in several design schools and was invited as a key-note speaker at several design conferences and as a juror of several national and international design competitions.

Anne Brandhøj was Educated as a furniture designer at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen. She is a Partner at the furniture design studio Bly Studio and also works with wood sculptures under her own name Anne Brandhø. Her sculptural practice is defined by a deep connection to materiality – large sections of fresh timber are hand felled, lathed and then dried.

Mårten Claesson was born in Lidingö, Sweden, in 1970. His studies include construction engineering at the Vasa Technical College in Stockholm and architecture at the Parsons School of Design in New York, before graduating in 1994 with an MFA degree from the Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. He is co-founder of Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects in Stockholm. Mårten Claesson is also a writer, a lecturer and a member of the board of Architects Sweden, Sveriges Arkitekter, the collective trade union and professional organization for all architects in Sweden.

Sarah Hossli is a product designer based in Lucerne, Switzerland. Her design work is driven by her passion and interest in today’s cultural, societal, and ethical topics. She carefully analyzes the social impacts of products while she creates objects that are both poetic and sensuous. In all her works, she explores and uses the unique properties and distinctive qualities of the material. During her working life as a designer, she taught experimental three-dimensional sketching and furniture design at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, while at the same time working as an independent designer.

Lorenz Noelle is a product designer based in Switzerland. He studied art at high school, where he discovered his passion for design. He graduated with a master's degree in product design from the École cantonale d'art de Lausanne and a bachelor's degree from the University of Applied Sciences in Munich. For a short time he worked for Jehs+Laub in Stuttgart. In 2021 he founded his own studio working in various fields, from industrial design of everyday objects to furniture design and exhibition projects. In projects, Noelle searches for the essence of form through a reduction to the essential. The works embody contemporary values based on a careful research of the context, a respectful use of materials and his practical approach. His creativity leads him to collaborate with a wide range of international clients.

Li Xiang is the Founder and CEO of X+Living, which she established in 2011 in Shanghai, and has ever since been building her own design team working at the cutting edge of art, fashion and business. She has gained cross-field achievements by exploring interior design as an architect, creating many design works with commercial and aesthetic values in the culture, retail, hotel and other industries. Her high-profile design has become the benchmark in aesthetic design and strategic design, and won international recognition with a series of top international awards. She was awarded three times Andrew Martin’s International Interior Design Award, 2 Platinum awards and 9 Golden awards in A’ Design Awards. Li Xiang is the first Chinese designer that was invited as a jury member of the Frame Awards. In 2020, she was selected as the only Chinese designer in FAST COMPANY: ‘Global: Most Creative People in Business’ that year. Owing to Li’s guidance and management, X+Living with its unique surreal fantasy space aesthetics has become one of the leading design forces with great international influence and was chosen as the jury winner of Best Commercial Firm in 2022 Architizer A+ Awards.

Takeshi Yamamura is a Japanese architect and founder of Tokyo-based YSLA YamamuraSanzLaviña Architects, which he established in 2016 in partnership with Spanish architect Natalia Sanz. Takeshi previously worked with Dominique Perrault Architecture. He is currently an associate professor at Tokyo Polytechnic University.