Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin

Founders, Formafantasma
Netherlands

Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin are studio Formafantasma, an Italian designer duo based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Their interest in product design developed on the IM master course at Design Academy Eindhoven, where they graduated in July 2009. Since then, Formafantasma has developed a coherent body of work characterised by experimental material investigations and explored issues such as the relationship between tradition and local culture, critical approaches to sustainability and the significance of objects as cultural conduits.

Budiman Hendropurnomo

Director, Denton Corker Marshall
Indonesia

Budiman Hendropurnomo is one of the most decorated and respected architects in Indonesia. Born in Malang, East Java, he graduated from the University of Melbourne before joining Denton Corker Marshall (DCM) in 1981. He established DCM’s Indonesian branch (incorporated with the local name Duta Cermat Mandiri) in Jakarta in 1987. Today, Budiman’s name is synonymous with large-scale projects that have shaped the face of Indonesia’s urban landscape. There are always elements of experimentation coupled with rigorous attention to detail in each of these large-scale projects, from high-rise office towers, school complexes and shopping centres to sprawling seaside resorts. And at the heart of the experimentation is the search for sustainability and the desire to translate and elevate Indonesian culture with architecture.

Chan Ee Mun

Architect, WOHA
Singapore

Chan Ee Mun is senior associate at WOHA, a regional design practice based in Singapore. He has been associated with WOHA since 2002 as project leader for key residential, commercial, conservation, institutional and hospitality projects.

Having been acknowledged by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) Singapore as a leading young architect in “20 under 45: The Next Generation”, Ee Mun is helping shape Singapore’s urbanscape and policy for the future on the invitation of Singapore’s statutory boards. He is engaged in academia as a visiting design tutor, lecturer and external examiner at local art and architectural institutions such as the National University of Singapore, Singapore University of Technology and Design, and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

Eleena Jamil

Principal, Eleena Jamil Architect
Malaysia

Eleena Jamil trained as an architect at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University where she went on to complete her MPhil and PhD degrees. After working as an architect in the UK with Capita, and Malaysia with Ken Yeang and Hijjas Kasturi, Eleena established her practice Eleena Jamil Architect in 2005.

Eleena has served as an External Examiner to various architecture schools and regularly contributes to international conferences to talk about architecture and urban design. Projects developed by EJA such as the Bamboo Playhouse, Sepang House and the Millennium School have been widely published in international press and received international recognition from the Leaf Awards, World Architecture Festival Awards, and Plan Awards.

James Calder

Founder, Calder Consultants
Australia

James Calder, an early pioneer in activity-based workplace design and a leader in workplace strategy for the digital age, is Global Director of User Strategy at start-up consultancy ERA-co. James works globally and has a deep understanding of workstyles, organizational cultures and extensive experience in project delivery particularly around innovation. His project list includes Macquarie at Shelley Street and 50 Martin Place, NAB at 700 Bourke Street, Atlassian at TechCentral, Brookfield’s HO in New York and Mitsui Fudosan’s new workspace in Tokyo.

James has developed workplace strategies and specialist fitouts and buildings for lawyers, accountants, management consultants, media and technology organizations, investment and retail banks, governments and universities. He also works for real estate owners and developers to design the next generation of buildings for the tenants of the future. James is a practitioner, facilitator, author and educator interested in all facets of strategy, design and workplace optimization.

Jan Utzon

Architect, Utzon Architects
Denmark

Being the son of Opera House designer Jørn Utzon, it’s no surprise that Jan Utzon grew up with architecture as the main theme of influence in his childhood. Having studied architecture in both Sydney and Copenhagen, Jan graduated in 1970 and begun what would come to be a legendary architecture career in Denmark and abroad.

After founding Utzon Architects with his father, Jan and the firm went on to win a competition to design the new National Assembly Complex in Kuwait. Since 1976 Jan and Utzon Architects have been involved in a wide variety of works in Denmark, including the Paustian House in Copenhagen, the Skagen Odde Nature Centre in the north of Jutland, as well as numerous international projects.

Jan’s passion for great design extends to a passion for making design for the better of the world, particularly in developing countries.

Joshua Comaroff

Design Consultant, Lekker Architects
Singapore

Joshua Comaroff is a design consultant at Singapore-based firm Lekker Architects. Born in Manchester and raised in Chicago, Josh studied literature and creative writing at Amherst College before joining the Master of Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture programmes at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Here he worked as part of Rem Koolhaas’ Harvard Project on the city.

Together with his partner Ong Ker-Shing at Lekker, Josh works across a broad creative spectrum with a special emphasis on design for the arts, and for children and seniors. He also teaches at Yale-NUS College in Singapore.

Koichi Takada

Director, Koichi Takada Architects
Australia

Koichi Takada is part of a new generation of architects that strive to bring nature back into the urban environment – an approach he matured after living in cities of high urbanization: Tokyo, New York and London. His architecture is one that reconnects humans to the natural environment, drawing inspiration from organic forms and local contexts.

Graduating from the School of Architecture at City University of New York and the AA school of Architecture, London, Koichi Takada established his Sydney-based firm, Koichi Takada Architects, in 2008. He has brought a Japanese sensibility to Australian Architecture, each project embodying his commitment to nature and consideration of the human experience.

Through a series of award-winning designs, the growing practice has gained an international reputation and is about to change the skylines of Sydney, Brisbane, Tokyo, Los Angeles and Mexico City.

Leone Lorrimer

National Practice Leader, GHDWoodhead
Australia

For over 30 years Leone has been a recognisable presence in the architecture and design profession. Her projects have won numerous awards in Australia and internationally. She has been a leading design professional, a mentor and an executive director of two major international practices, as well as working as client to some of the world’s most famous architecture and design practices. Leone has recently been appointed as National Practice Leader for GHDWoodhead.

Luke Yeung

Principal, Architectkidd
Thailand

Luke Yeung leads Thailand architectural studio Architectkidd along with Udomsak Komonvilas and Jariyawadee Lekawatana. Based in Bangkok, Architectkidd’s designs make use of innovative tools that are sensitively applied to local materials and construction techniques. This combination leads to architectural projects that are bold and inventive but also closely connected with the local conditions of South East Asia.

Working within the context of South East Asia’s growing cities, Architectkidd is known for articulating materiality as a way to bring humanistic and social qualities into the built environment.

Paul McGillick

Writer, Editor, Public Speaker. McGillick Consulting
Australia

Dr Paul McGillick is a prominent, Sydney-based writer and editor, specialising in the fields of architecture, art and design.

For over a decade, Paul served as Editorial Director at Indesign Media. He is the author of a number of architecture and design books, has edited and contributed to numerous other books and written innumerable essays and articles. He has contributed to leading newspapers such as the Australian Financial Review, and magazines both in Australia and Internationally, as well as having carved a career in radio and TV art, drama, and documentaries.

Praveen Nahar

Director, National Institute of Design

India

Praveen Nahar is the Director of National Institute of Design (NID) Ahmedabad with its extension campuses in Gandhinagar and Bengaluru. He has also been a faculty member in the Product Design discipline at NID since 2002.

He studied Production Engineering and Industrial Design at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, as well as Sustainable Design as a postgraduate at Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands. He has over 23 years of experience in design teaching, consultancy and research. His range of academic and professional interests include: Systems Thinking in Design, Design Thinking, Sustainable Design/Green Design, Design in the Public Domain, Social Design, Appropriate Technology, and Strategic Design to name a few.

Raj Nandan

Founder & CEO, Indesign Media Asia Pacific
Singapore/Australia

Rajesh Nandan is the Founder, Publisher and Chief Executive Officer of the design industry’s premier regional media house, Indesign Media Asia Pacific. After acquiring his first magazine at the age of 22 in 1993, Raj continued to launch a suite of magazine titles throughout the 1990s that would become the foundation for his boutique publishing house in 2000 under the flagship title, Indesign.

In 2010, the company moved further throughout Asia with digital and print titles in Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong – including welcoming India to the fold in the very near future. The root of his success lies in Raj being a very early proponent of the potential for digital platforms to support our region’s creative talent

Shashi Caan

Founding Partner, SC COLLECTIVE
United States of America/United Kingdom

Shashi Caan is a distinguished thought leader for architectural design internationally. As a practitioner, design futurist, educator and author, her dedication to furthering human betterment through and by design is reflected in her 25-year design career.

She was formerly Associate Partner and Design Director with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, in New York. Since 2002, she has led THE COLLECTIVE, the innovatively structured firm which she co-founded. Shashi was US Designer of the Year (2004), granted the Golden Seat Architectural Master Award of China (2012), and appointed JDP Design Ambassador to Japan (2013). Her seminal book, Rethinking Design and Interiors: Human Beings in the Built Environment, has been translated into multiple languages.

Sue Carr

Founder & Principal Director, Carr
Australia

Carr is a studio that has championed and cemented the power of design in Australia for more than 40 years – and behind it is Sue Carr. Sue’s design philosophy permeates every project that the studio creates. Throughout her career Sue has received several accolades, in 2006 Sue was inducted in the DIA’s Hall of Fame. She has also been recognised in the AFR Westpac ‘100 Women of Influence’ awards, and in 2010 she won the Gold Medal for Interior Design at IDEA.

2020 marks Sue’s third time as a judge on the INDE.Awards.

David Kaunitz

Director, Co-Founder, Kaunitz Yeung Architecture

Consultation, collaboration and time are the three ingredients David Kaunitz adds to his architectural practice that transforms a design from a building into a place. David founded Kaunitz Yeung with his wife Ka Wai Yeung following his return to Sydney after living in the UK and the Solomon Islands.

David has more than a decade of community development and post disaster experience in South East Asia and the Pacific working for clients such as UNICEF, UNHCR, World Vision and the Governments of Australia, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Fiji and the Philippines. As part of this time he spent four years living in the Solomon Islands, a period he says played an integral role in developing his approach to working with First Nations People and culturally diverse groups. David is also a fluent Pidgin speaker.

David’s European experience as senior architect and his unique relationship with remote communities underpins both the capability and direction of Kaunitz Yeung Architecture and its broad range of successful health, education, tourism and cultural projects for governments, organisations and commercial clients.
With projects in more than 30 Aboriginal communities, David has developed unique expertise working with Aboriginal stakeholders. He authored the 2017 update to the ‘Australian Government, Department of Health, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Funded Capital Works Projects – Facility Design Guidelines’.

Punmu & Parnngurr Aboriginal Health Clinics by Kaunitz Yeung Architecture won The Wellness Space Award at INDE.Awards 2019.

Felicity Slattery & Sarah Cosentino

Founders, Studio Esteta

Studio Esteta is an architecture and interior design practice founded in 2015 by directors Felicity Slattery and Sarah Cosentino. With its name originating from the Italian translation of Aesthete – a person who is appreciative of and sensitive to beauty – Studio Esteta harnesses architecture and interior design in equal measure, to create buildings and spaces that celebrate aesthetic appeal through honest and sophisticated methods.

The Melbourne based studio strives to approach each project with a worldly outlook, eschewing trends in favour of a more considered, directional and wholly tailored approach leading to contemporary designs of a refined and timeless nature.
Slattery graduated with a Masters of Architecture and Cosentino, with a Bachelor of Interior Architecture (Honours), and a strong relationship was formed whilst working for Clare Cousin’s Architects.

The pair leads a strong team of architects and designers to embrace challenge and develop tailored outcomes that are clever, considered and collaborative.

Studio Esteta won The Prodigy People’s Choice Award, INDE.Awards 2019.

Manfred Yuen

Founding Partner, Groundwork Architects + Associates

Manfred is the founder of Groundwork Architecture + Urbanism, London in 2007 and the co-founder of Groundwork Architects + Associates, Hong Kong and Shenzhen in 2011. Since 2007, apart from his practice, Manfred also served as a visiting lecturer at Kingston University, London and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design, teaching architecture design and history.

Prior to the founding of Groundwork, Manfred received his architectural training at the University of Cambridge and the University of Hong Kong (with First Class Honor). Manfred had worked with Coop-Himmelb(l)au, Vienna, where he was responsible for their operations in China.

Hawker Reload by Groundwork was the winner of The Influencer at INDE.Awards 2019.

Palinda Kannangara

Founder, Palinda Kannangara

Sri Lankan Architect Palinda Kannangara has a background in Mathematics and Architecture. He joined the study course conducted by the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects and received his charter in 2004. Founded in 2005, his Sri Lankan-based architecture firm, Palinda Kannangara Architects, is known for an experiential architecture that hinges on simplicity and connection with the natural environment. The Firm’s work has been recognised for contextual sensitivity, crafted material use and a minimalism reflective of the Sri Lankan ethos. The firm has been the recipient of several prestigious national and international awards in its 14 years in practice. Their own Studio at Rajagiriya is one of the winners of the RIBA International Awards for Excellence in Architecture 2018.

Family Holiday Structure, Imaduwa by Palinda Kannangara Architects received an Honourable Mention – The Living Space, INDE.Awards 2019.

Ryan Russell & Byron George

Directors, Russell & George

Ryan’s experience as a designer has crossed the fields of architecture and interior design, industrial design, theatre and exhibition design. He is most well known for his retail and hospitality interior designs. Described as a strategist, futurist and entrepreneur in the industry, he now ventures into the fields of information technology, augmented and virtual reality and software development. Ryan’s key strengths lie in the rapid assessment and development of innovative design solutions, and a sound understanding of the essential interface between design and commercial viability.

Byron’s experience spans from small object design to large scale architecture across several continents, ranging from multi-billion dollar housing developments to extensive heritage projects. With a philosophy encompassing a mix of curiosity, energy, and a fundamental belief in the ability of good design to change a person’s day for the better, Byron provides a wholly unique approach to architecture and design.

In 2010, after both winning the National Interior Design Award for Emerging Practice, Byron and Ryan merged their businesses – creating Russell & George.

Space & Time by Russell & George won The Work Space, INDE.Awards 2019.

William Ng

Founder, Director, STUDIO WILLS + Architects

NG William founded STUDIO WILLS + Architects in 2013; An architectural studio of environment & experience design with a focus in making a better environment by discovering the potentials of present conditions. The aspiration to enhance the environment brings an approach of searching the extraordinary in the ordinary everyday life, through understanding of sensitive observations, thoughtful making, responsive teamwork and active collaborations.

Aside from practice, William teaches at School of Architecture (NUS) and is part of Awards Committee of Singapore Institute of Architects. Outside Architecture, William appreciates all things Asian and top-view goldfishes, Japanese Ranchus.

Project #13, by STUDIO WILLS + Architects, was the winner of The Living Space Category, INDE.Awards 2019.

Wilson Lee & Emily Ho

Founders, Studio Adjective

As the design director of STUDIO ADJECTIVE. Wilson believes a good design should be able to narrate a good story. During his practice in EDGE Design Institute, he has greatly involved in large scale urban, commercial and cultural projects with strong concept developments behind. Wilson co-founded architectural and interior design firm WALL Studio in 2010, with award winning projects such as Stack (Design for Asia Award) and Pacific Coffee Flagship store. In 2016, Wilson has co-founded STUDIO ADJECTIVE which further focus and develop story-telling architectural and interior concepts. Wilson is recognized by “40 under 40” award by Perspective and currently as a design columnist at CITY MAGAZINE, guest lecturer at Polytechnic University HKCC & “Honbito本人” for MUJI BOOKS.

Emily is the marketing & PR director of Studio Adjective. Emily focuses on delivering a complete strategy for a project in terms of branding and marketing ideas, in coherent with the spatial design. Communications between people is a very important focus to her, she believes every spatial/brand design should deliver it’s own unique story to people. A cafe, a retail shop or an apartment, it has to provide a sense of belonging that people would love to stay there and interact. And through the space, people will understand the importance of the spatial and branding strategy.

Studio Adjective were shortlisted for The Prodigy at the INDE.Awards 2019.