Yoga House in the Bog Jury Panel!

Buildner is pleased to announce the jury panel for its Yoga House in the Bog international design competition!

Alexandra Barker, Barker Associates Architecture Office - baao, Pratt Institute
Xuanru Chen, ZJJZ Atelier
Olha Kleytman, SBM studio
Nicolas Lapierre, Atelier L'Abri
Marco Lavit, Atelier LAVIT
Judson Moore, Waechter Architecture
Anna Maria Orrù, Konstfack – University of Arts, Crafts and Design, Nordic Biomimicry
Tom Schroeder, Patkau Architects
Yimeng Teng, Ro Rockett Design


Alexandra Barker is Founder and Principal at Barker Associates Architecture Office - baao, based in Brooklyn, NY, USA. With over 20 years of experience as a licensed architect, she is also an associate professor and the assistant chair of the Masters in Architecture program in the Graduate Architecture and Urban Design Department at the Pratt Institute, where she has taught since 2001. At Pratt, she has been the recipient of national grants to integrate practice and education and sustainable principles into Pratt’s graduate architecture curriculum. Alexandra received her M.ARCH from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, where she received the Templeton Kelly Prize and the Clifford Wong Housing Prize for her thesis work. Her undergraduate work in Visual and Environmental Studies was completed at Harvard College, where she graduated magna cum laude.

Xuanru Chen is a lead architect at Shanghai-based ZJJZ Atelier. ZJJZ’s projects have garnered numerous recognition, such as its Woodhouse Hotel being listed as one of the top 10 Chinese architecture projects by Dezeen in 2019.

Olha Kleytman is Founder of SBM studio based in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Born in 1969, she is a holder of two degrees from Karazin Kharkiv National University and Beketov National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv. She is a prominent member of the ‘Union of Architects of Ukraine’ and has been working on a number of key projects all over the country. In 2002 Olha founded SBM, which deals with architecture and urban design. SBM became a prize winner at a number of local and international competitions. Shortly after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Olha co-founded ‘Through the War’ – an NGO, providing humanitarian aid to the elderly, as well as supporting the defenders of Kharkiv. She remains the head of the organization and its active member till this day.

Nicolas Lapierre is Founding Partner of Atelier L'Abri, a Montreal based architecture studio specializing in ecological, healthy and sustainable construction. L'Abri advocates for innovative architectural solutions, putting forward wellness and the human and social character of our environments. Nicolas began his career working in Shanghai and was previously a project leader at BIG in New York.

Marco Lavit founded his architecture and design practice, Atelier LAVIT, in Paris in 2014. He studied architecture at Ecole Speciale d’Architecture in Paris and at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. He graduated at ESA in 2011 with a dissertation on wineries sustainable design. His studio covers a variety of projects that range from custom pieces, collectible design, limited editions pieces, industrial design, scenography, open air installations, interiors design, to houses and hotel design. In 2017 Atelier LAVIT realized an exclusive tree house, Origin, for the Park of Raray Castle, France, and a series of surprising, floating cabins for an hotel in Chateauneuf-du-Pape as well as some private suites such as Cabana in Ibiza. Ongoing projects such as private houses and eco-lodges hotels around Europe characterize continuous research on the theme of prefabricated wooden structures and intelligent design.

Anna Maria Orrù, PhD- Arch ARB SAR/MSA, works in biomimicry, artistic/design research and in curating performative ‘hands-on’ research, providing alternative approaches to ecological design and sustainability. She has worked as an ecological architect since 1999 in London, Los Angeles and Stockholm with studios that included Grimshaw, Exploration Architecture, Shigeru Ban and ATAP. She left traditional architecture in 2010 to enter into academia and transdisciplinary practice. Now based in Sweden and Italy, Orrù holds a PhD from Chalmers University. She is an Affiliated Senior Lecturer at Konstfack – University of Arts, Crafts and Design with a focus on sustainability, but also teaches in other Swedish universities, including in Italy. She is co-founder and co-director of Nordic Biomimicry, a center dedicated to collaborating with nature as a mentor, measure and method. In her spare time she is a beekeeper, olive grove-keeper, grows biodynamic wine, and has started a contemporary Nature Academy in Tuscany.

Judson Moore is the Design Director at Portland, Oregon-based Waechter Architecture. With an education and background in agriculture development and environmental design, Judson is an alumnus of Texas A&M University with an M.Arch from Rice University. He has worked as a designer and educator throughout Texas, Montana, Idaho, California and Oregon, bringing over 18 years of experience across a broad range of project types including educational, cultural, commercial, retail, residential, and industrial design. With extensive experience in institutional and private development he has been a designer and project lead on a number of award wining projects in the Pacific Northwest. *

Tom Schroeder is a senior architect with Patkau Architects and a guest critic / adjunct faculty at the University of British Columbia.  Tom has led teams of architects on a broad range of projects including some of the most distinguished and innovative academic, cultural, civic and residential projects in Canada.

Yimeng Teng is a project architect at Ro Rockett Design, an award winning design firm based in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Aspen. Yimeng grew up in China and after getting an engineering degree from Southeast University, she went abroad to receive her Master of Architecture from the University of Virginia and is currently a registered architect in the United States. She has more than eight years of experience in educational, institutional and residential projects, as well as multiple awards and competition winning entries. 

Yoga House in a Bog seeks designs for a yoga house located in a Latvian bog that is surrounded by forest and is a few hundred meters from Baltic Sea Beach. The brief calls for designs in harmony with the unique and sensitive environment surrounding it, an iconic design and a positive example of green building practices.