In order to showcase the best of the best, we’re relying on the careful curatorial eye of a prestigious judging panel. We select judges who know our region and hold an international perspective. They are all progressive thought leaders from the design and built environment industries.
Powered by their insights, the INDE.Awards will light up the design world with the prowess of Indo-Pacific.
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.
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.
Architect, WOHA
Singapore
Chan Ee Mun is a Director at WOHA. He obtained his Master of Architecture from the National University of Singapore and has been associated with the architectural practice since its inception. Ee Mun is driven by his intrinsic interest in Tropical Urbanity and its change-making potential in shaping responsive architectural solutions to modern issues of density and climate change. His work is characterised by its people-centric approach which is spatially engaging, programmatically vibrant and environmentally responsive.
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.
Director, Placing
Australia
James Calder is one of the world’s innovators in workplace, education and health design. His list of key projects has always been a generation ahead and have a unique proposition around the performance of space and place from the user perspective. Landmark projects such as Campus MLC, Macquarie at 50 Martin Place and Shelley Street, multiple projects for NAB including 700 Bourke, TechCentral, SAHMRI and Tonsley Park were all influenced by his thinking and collaborative implementation approach.
Having worked for large international firms, an investment bank, and his own consultancy, James is now embarking on a new area of expertise that is beginning to be called the spatial economy, based on Web 3.0 and the next wave of the technological changes. James has been a founding INDE Jury member and continues in this role for 2025.
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.
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.
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.
National Practice Leader, GHD Design
Australia
For over 30 years Leone Lorrimer 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 a client to some of the world’s most famous architecture and design practices. Leone is GHD Design’s National Practice Leader and has been a member of the INDE.Awards jury since the inception of the program.
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 SouthEast 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.
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.
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.
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.
Founding Partner, SC COLLECTIVE & GloWD
United States of America/United Kingdom
Shashi Caan is internationally celebrated as a multidisciplinary designer, educator, and author whose work highlights the transformative power of design to elevate life quality. As Founder, President, and CEO of GloWD (Globally We Design), SCC (The SC COLLECTIVE), and IFI (International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers), she has spearheaded landmark initiatives, including the IFI Interiors Declaration, the GloWD Universal Design Education Charter, GloWD GEL-Lab and the GloWD World Youth Designer Program.
With 30 years of practice experience and a career spanning continents and disciplines, her prior leadership roles include Design Director at SOM and Chair of Interiors at Parsons. Shashi is widely recognised for her contributions. Broadly honoured with design awards, accolades, and fellowships (from IFI and RSA (world), Latin America, Australia, the UK, and the USA), she actively shapes global design thinking and practice by advancing design excellence and fostering cross-cultural collaboration.
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.