Tokyo Urban Meditation Cabins Jury Panel

Buildner is pleased to announce the jury for its Tokyo Urban Meditation Cabins Competition!

Nancy Beka, Studio Edwards
Greg Corso, SPORTS Collaborative
James Delaney, Block by Block Foundation
Dan Dorocic, ON/OFF
Mark Dytham, Klein Dytham architecture (KDa)
Lydia Kallipoliti, ANAcycle thinktank.
Astrid Klein, Klein Dytham architecture (KDa)
Rituparna Simlai, Studio Arth LLC
Takeshi Yamamura, YSLA YamamuraSanzLaviña Architects
Suzuko Yamada, Suzuko Yamada Architects

 Nancy Beka is an architectural designer and co-director of Studio Edwards, a Melbourne-based design practice established in 2016 to bring together architecture, interiors and conceptual design with a dedication to pushing these disciplines in innovative and unexpected directions. The studio’s work is defined by elegantly crafted responses that employ inventive solutions to  complex situations and challenging budgets, always striving to test materials,  construction techniques, proportion and form.

Greg Corso of Syracuse NY-based SPORTS Collaborative is a designer from California. Greg received both his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Architecture from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He has worked in art and architecture studios in the United States and Europe including Studio Gang, JDS Architects, and Cliff Garten Studio and has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony. Greg has taught architecture and design at Woodbury University, The University of Illinois at Chicago, and is currently an Assistant Professor at Syracuse University, School of Architecture.

James Delaney is the Chairman of the Block by Block Foundation, a non-profit partnership between UNHabitat, Mojang and Microsoft which uses Minecraft as a community participation tool in urban design. James is also the founder and Managing Director of BlockWorks, an international design studio which has pioneered the use of Minecraft as a design tool for creating immersive digital experiences.

Dan Dorocic is a member of design & architecture collective ON/OFF.  Through his involvement with ON/OFF, he has been focusing on mobile architecture, publishing, and pedagogical workshops. Dan also works on more traditional architecture projects and has curated several exhibitions, run workshops and taught in architecture departments in Germany and Norway.  ON/OFF is a network of designers, architects, curators, filmmakers, and urbanists. Our curiosity lies in the city and its processes. This complexity offers the basis for experiments into our contemporary condition and gives us the opportunity to question, to tune into, and to discover new realities. With each project we draw on our combined experiences and unique skills to investigate and affect the city’s lived dimension. We primarily conceive of tools and structures both physical, social, and fictional - which enable shared engagement with the citizens of the place where the experiments are carried out.

Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham are founders of Tokyo-based Klein Dytham architecture (KDa), a multi-disciplinary design practice known for architecture, interiors, public spaces and installations. Established in 1991, today KDa is a multi-lingual office with an international reputation and a high-profile client list. Representative works are Daikanyama T-SITE／Tsutaya Books (2011), GINZA PLACE (2016) and Open House (Bangkok, 2017), PokoPoko Clubhouse／Risonare Nasu (2020), Cartier Facade Osaka (2021) and some of the winning awards include American Retail Environment Awards, D&AD Awards, World Architecture Festival Awards, Wallpaper* Design Awards and Design for Asia. In 2003 Mark and Astrid devised PechaKucha Night as an event for Tokyo designers to meet and share their work – it has now grown into an international network with events running in over 1,200 cities around the globe, inspiring creatives worldwid.

Lydia Kallipoliti is an architect, engineer, scholar and an Assistant Professor at the Cooper Union in New York. She is the author of The Architecture of Closed Worlds (2018), the editor of EcoRedux; Design Remedies for an Ailing Planet (AD 2011) and the Head Curator of the upcoming Tallinn Architecture Biennale. She holds a SMArchS from MIT and a PhD from Princeton University. Kallipoliti has previously taught at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Syracuse University and Columbia University. She is the principal of ANAcycle thinktank.

Rituparna Simlai is Principal of Studio Arth LLC, based in Miami, USA and New Delhi, India. A disciple of the philosophy “Design with Purpose” Rituparna firmly believes that Landscape  Architects are equipped to act as proactive agents of transformation that use design as a tool  for space making, creating environmental and social awareness; and above all make the future  world better than the present. Throughout her practice as an Landscape Architect, her work has  focused on integrating parametric technology with form and function while seeking a design  with a greater purpose. Rituparna Simlai is the founding principal of Studio Arth, a Landscape  Architecture design firm based in Coconut Grove, Miami. Rituparna has collaborated with renowned design firms such as AECOM, Cannon Designs,  Integral Designs and Raymond Jungles on geographically diverse projects scaling from  residential design to large master planning and infrastructure projects. With over 10 years of  cumulative experience in landscape + architecture and a passion for planting design especially  in the tropical region, she has worked on award winning international projects in New York,  Miami, California, India, Singapore and the Caribbean Islands. She received her Bachelor’s  degree in architecture from the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi, India and earned  her Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University, Cambridge, USA. She is a registered Landscape Architect in the State of Florida and a registered Architect in India. Rituparna was honored with the Exception Emerging Professional Award by the Florida chapter  of American Society of Landscape Architect (ASLA).

 Suzuko Yamada is founder of Suzuko Yamada Architects. Suzuko graduated with a degree in Environmental Information from Keio University in 2007 and obtained her master’s degree from Tokyo Art University in 2013. She worked as an architect with Sou Fujimoto Architects from 2007-2011 and established own practice in 2013. Suzuko currently teaches at Kyoto University, Tokyo University of Science, and Showa Women’s University.

 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.

The Tokyo Urban Meditation Cabins competition is part of Buildner’s event series focused on small-scale, sustainable living. The brief calls for designs for a meditation cabin prototype that could be replicated and placed around various spots in Tokyo. The cabins should serve as a small public sanctuary where people can take a break to reconnect with themselves.