20 Inspirational Thought Leaders on the 10th Anniversary A+Awards Jury

A+Awards Finalists and Winners get their work in front of the people who matter, gaining recognition as the most influential visionaries in the AEC field.

Architizer Editors

Architizer's 13th A+Awards features a suite of sustainability-focused categories that recognizing designers that are building a green industry — and a better future. Start your entry to receive global recognition for your work!

While architecture is the beating heart of Architizer’s A+Awards, the impact of the program extends far behind the profession. It makes sense, then, that our jurors do too: our 250+ member jury academy is comprised of leaders who are actively shaping the world we live in, representing a sought-after segment of design-savvy professionals including distinguished luminaries from fields as diverse as fashion, publishing, product design, real estate development and tech.

A+Awards Finalists and Winners get their work in front of the people who matter, and gain recognition as the most influential visionaries in the AEC field. This year’s jury is more diverse than ever before, and the stellar lineup is representative of the pioneering spirit that underpins the program. Here are just some of the fascinating figures that will be casting their creative eye over the world’s best architecture this year.

Architecture

Germane Barnes

Principal, Studio Barnes; Assistant Professor of Architecture, University of Miami

Barnes’ research and design practice investigates the connection between architecture and identity. Mining architecture’s social and political agency, he examines how the built environment influences black domesticity. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Community Housing Identity Lab (CHIL) at the University Of Miami School Of Architecture. He is the 2021 Harvard GSD Wheelwright Prize winner, Rome Prize Fellow and winner of the Architectural League Prize.

Barnes’ design and research contributions have been published and exhibited in several international institutions. Most notably, The Museum of Modern Art, Pin-Up Magazine, The Graham Foundation, The New York Times, Architect Magazine, DesignMIAMI/ Art Basel, The Swiss Institute, Metropolis Magazine, Curbed, and The National Museum of African American History where he was identified as one of the future designers on the rise.

Jake Barton

Principal & Founder, Local Projects

Jake Barton is Principal and Founder of Local Projects, a media and physical design firm that creates groundbreaking experiences. Credits include landmark projects like the 9/11 Memorial Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Local Projects has won every major award including the National Design Awards and Cannes Lions. Jake’s TED talk has nearly one million views, and he is on Fast Company Magazine’s list of top fifty designers.

Julie Eizenberg

FAIA, FRAIA, Founding Principal, Koning Eizenberg Architecture

Julie Eizenberg has given visibility to the design value and potential of community projects and people-oriented practice. She is a Founding Principal of Koning Eizenberg, responsible for setting the design vision. Her focus on the user experience, whether it is an individual, underserved community, or the public at large brings an empathetic perspective that underpins how KoningEizenberg transforms mundane programs into places of ease and generosity. Her practice has been honored as AIA California’s Firm of the Year, and together with founding partner, Hank Koning, was awarded the AIA Los Angeles Gold Medal, the Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Architecture.

Julie was also recognized with an Honorary Ph.D in Architecture from the University of Melbourne in 2016 and honored as Design Leader in the 2020 Architect’s Newspaper Women in Architecture Awards. Under her leadership, Koning Eizenberg has earned over 200 design and sustainability awards and been widely published in the US and abroad. Julie teaches and lectures around the world and has shared the practice’s interests in influential monographs including “Architecture isn’t just for special occasions” (2006) which highlights the value of social engagement as a rich reserve for design and “Urban Hallucinations” (2017) which examines how the idyll of local shapes neighborhoods.

Gloria Kloter

AIA, NCARB, CODIA, Founder & CEO, Glow Architects

Gloria Kloter is an award winning architect, founder and CEO of Glow Architects, and a keynote speaker. Gloria has been a practicing architect both in her home country (Dominican Republic) and in the United States since 2004. She has dedicated a huge chunk of her career to helping other young architects grow. As a leader in the architecture community, she is the founder of the Foreign Architects, a private online community where she mentors young and aspiring immigrant architects on how to obtain their architect license in the United States.

As a testament to her influence and impact, Gloria Kloter currently serves as the Architect Licensing Advisor of the State of Florida through AIA Florida. She is a part of the Board of Directors of the AIA Tampa Bay where she is the chairperson of the Women in Architecture committee. She was also honored for the 2019 Sho-Ping Ching Women’s Leadership Summit Scholarship, a recognition to mid-career women architects who are advancing toward leadership roles and are making a positive impact within their communities.

Gloria has been a keynote speaker and panelist on several occasions at the Young Architect conference, NCARB’s Architect Licensing Advisor Summit, World Creativity and Innovation Conference, AIA WMR Vision 2020, among other events. Gloria Kloter and Glow Architects have been featured by major architectural and global publications like The Young Architect Podcast, South Tampa Magazine, Arquitexto , NCARB, YAF Connection, Thrive Global, Tech Times, Influencive , and others, regarding her experience in the field of Architecture, Interior Design and her journey as a foreign architect in the USA.

Hanxiao Liu

Co-Founder, IILab.

Hanxiao Liu is a registered architect in Germany and co-founder of IILab. He received his bachelor’s degree in applied science mechanical engineering from the University of British Columbia, Canada in 2009, and his master’s degree in architecture and a certificate in landscape architecture from the University of Pennsylvania in 2012. After graduation, he became an architect at haascookzemmrich STUDIO2050 in Stuttgart, Germany, and subsequently founded llLab with Luis Ricardo, David Correa, and Taichi Kuma, in 2016.

His primary works include San Sa Village at the foot of the Mutianyu Great Wall in Beijing; Bamboo Bamboo Canopy and Pavilions at Impression Sanjieliu in Guilin, China; WAAAM the Glazed-tile Art Architecture Museum; and the Brickyard Retreat Renovation. Liu’s work explores life in rural areas and the revitalization of rural art renaissance in the countryside, while experimenting with urban sustainable communities in the urban realm

Suchi Reddy

Principal, Reddymade

Suchi Reddy founded Reddymade in 2002 with a human-centric approach to design, dedicated to celebrating diversity and equality, as well as addressing the economic, social, environmental and cultural impacts of her work on both the user and the planet.

She sits on the boards of the Design Trust for Public Space, Storefront for Art and Architecture, and Madame Architect; and she is a member of the Dean’s Board of Advisors at University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture. She was appointed the Plym Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois School of Architecture, Urbana-Champaign for the Fall 2019 semester. Reddy has presented and lectured on the firm’s work at numerous venues including The Salk Institute for the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture’s 2018 conference, University of Illinois, and University of Wisconsin.

Kathy Scott

Principal, Walker Warner Architects

Kathy Scott is a Principal at Walker Warner Architects, a San Francisco-based architectural practice specializing in custom residential and estate design, as well as winery, commercial office, and hospitality design in the Western United States and Hawaii. After growing up on Long Island, Kathy earned a Bachelor of Architecture in 1993 from Rice University before joining Walker Warner Architects as the third employee. As the firm evolved, Kathy’s reverence for craft, sensibility for mentoring, and extensive management experience propelled her to a leadership role in the office where she was elevated to Principal in 2015. Along with managing some of the most intricate projects and high-profile clients, Kathy has helped build a solid foundation of general architectural processes and practices to help the firm achieve a consistent and high quality level of work. Kathy also leads all Marketing and Social Responsibility initiatives at the firm.

Jasmit Singh Rangr

President and Founder, Rangr Studio

Jasmit Singh Rangr grew up on the coasts of India, in the UK, and has lived in the US since attending Yale University for college and for graduate school. In these different climates and geographies he developed a deep sensitivity to the interaction between climate, landscape, and architecture.
In 2004 Jasmit founded Rangr Studio, a design firm committed to creating architecture in harmony with its landscape, climate and environment.
The firm’s work is a continual investigation of the relationship between building and site. Each project simultaneously seeks integration with the site’s ecology, whether urban or rural, and a poetic experience of its location: a view over a pool seamless with the ocean; a screen porch that hangs over air among tree branches; oak leaves blazing gold through a clerestory at sunset; a city apartment and roof deck from which one sees moving columns of light on asphalt in the rain.

Rangr Studio’s work has been published in over 40 countries and has won global awards. Jasmit is a licensed architect in California and is certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). Since 2019, he has also taught architectural design at the University of California, Berkeley.

Oana Stanescu

Founder, Oana Stanescu Studio; Cofounder, Friends of + Pool

Oana Stănescu is a Romanian architect who is building, writing and teaching. Her work is an undisciplined collection of projects across scales, programs and collaborators, pursuing the affect of physical spaces. She is based in New York and Berlin, and current projects under construction include the reconversion of a ½ km long elevated structure in Reșița , Romania, a long house in Canada and an installation for a music festival. She is teaching at Harvard GSD and MIT in Cambridge, USA.

Design & Culture

Joe Cheng

Founder, Cheng Chung Design

Mr. Joe Cheng is the founder of Cheng Chung Design Hong Kong. He was the first jury chair for the CTBUH’s interior design category, as well as a member of the Frame Award’s hospitality design jury.He has also received various honors, including UN cultural ambassador, Chinese Design of the Year, Hall of Fame member, and Professor of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.

He is well-known in the world of international hotel interior design for his design concept of “Eastern creative thought in Western form.” Under his leadership, CCD was placed third in the US Interior Design magazine’s 2019 Global Hotel Interior Design rankings and first in Asia. In addition, it was named one of the “Top 500 Asian Brands” for two years in a row in 2019 and 2020, and one of “China’s 500 Most Valuable Brands” in 2020. It is the first and only design brand on both lists.

Yoko Choy

China editor, Wallpaper* magazine; Co-founder, Collective Contemporist

Born in Hong Kong, China, Yoko Choy is the China editor for Wallpaper* magazine. Her work to date has been published in numerous Chinese andinternational titles, including Hong Kong Economic Journal, Assouline, Gestalten, Louis Vuitton publishing and more. Choy takes part in judging panels, moderates talks and conferences, she is also a creative and communications consultant and has worked for Art Basel on its launch in Hong Kong, curated exhibitions for Dover Street Market in China, advised Beijing Design Week on international strategy and represented Mariotestino+ in Asia.

Currently based in Hong Kong and Amsterdam, her mission, as a multilingual and multicultural creative commentator and communicator, is to translate the knowledge and insights from both worlds into a common creative language and to raise awareness of the importance of cross-cultural exchange in the creative industry and businesses. To this end, Yoko co-founded Collective Contemporist, a creative consultancy with offices in Beijing, Hong Kong and Amsterdam, together with the launch of the creative conference Assembly in Beijing in the winter of 2018, to stimulate and inspire conversations and commercial collaborations between the two spheres.

Fang Hu

Founder and Chief Designer, Beijing Puri Lighting Design Co, Ltd.

Fang Hu is a lighting designer and founder of Beijing Puri Lighting Design Co, Ltd. From 2006 to 2009, she studied at Renmin University of China and received a master’s degree in aesthetics and philosophy. After graduating, she worked at BPI lighting design company in the United States, and in 2010 was appointed China’s Senior Lighting Designer. In 2012, Hu founded Beijing Puri Lighting Design Co., Ltd. and continues to serve as the company’s chief lighting designer. Hu became a Certified Lighting Designer in the United States after graduating from Parsons School of Design in 2019, and has since served as a member of numerous industry organizations in both the United States and China, including the Interior Lighting Professional Board of the Chinese Illuminating Engineering Society, The IES Lighting Engineering Association, the International Association of Lighting Design, the Urban Space Lighting Work Department and Expert Work Department of the Chinese National Application Promotion Committee.

Julia Gamolina

Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Madame Architect; Associate Principal at Ennead

Dedicated to the built environment and to the empowerment, advancement, and visibility of the women who work in it, Julia Gamolina is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Madame Architect where she has published to date over 250 interviews with women who advance the practice of architecture. Trained as an architect, she is also the Associate Principal at Ennead.

In 2021, Julia was named one of Apartment Therapy’s Design Changemakers and one of Commercial Observer’s Top Young Professionals. In 2019, she received the Special Citation from AIANY for her work with Madame Architect, and was also honored as one of Professional Women in Construction’s “20 Under 40”. Her writing has also been featured in Fast Company, A Women’s Thing, Metropolis Magazine, Architizer, and the Architect’s Newspaper. Julia received her Bachelor of Architecture at Cornell University, graduating with the Charles Goodwin Sands Memorial Medal for exceptional merit in the thesis of architecture. She is based in New York City.

Irene Osei-Poku & Fermin Tribaldos

Cofounders, Architects, Not Architecture

Irene Osei-Poku and Fermín Tribaldos are the founders of Architects, not Architecture. Fascinated with the personalities behind the projects that shape the built environment, Irene and Fermin created Architects, not Architecture for architects to speak about their work with one condition: no project presentations! Instead, AnA invites architects to share the stories behind the projects, the people and their intellectual and personal biographies.

With Irene’s expertise in art direction and photography and Fermín’s industry knowledge, AnA has invited more than 140 renowned architects to speak at events around the globe, and built a vibrant community of viewers. Most recently, AnA has launched its Virtual World Tour Season 2, and continues to introduce world-class architects and their stories to the design community at large.

Jane Withers

Design curator, Writer and Brand Consultant, Jane Withers Studio

Jane Withers is a leading design curator, consultant and writer. Her London-based studio works with cultural institutions and global brands on curation, programming and design-led strategies. Jane has curated exhibitions and projects at the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts among many others. She teaches and speaks internationally and has served on numerous juries and advisory boards. She has a long record working with sustainability, and the role that design can play in tackling social, cultural and environmental challenges and the future of water in particular. In 2022 she is curator for Bio 27 in Ljubljana on the theme ‘Super Vernaculars – Design for a Regenerative Future.’

Innovation & Business

Amit Gupta

Founder & Editor-in-Chief, STIRworld.com, STIRpad.com

A designer, thinker, and conceptualizer for all things creative, provocative and challenging, Amit founded STIR as a global platform that offers exclusively curated content set apart by its characteristic careful analysis and meticulous presentation. STIR presents arenas for cross-disciplinary collaborations, industry connect and community building enabling it to enjoy a large reach with an audience of design enthusiasts, consumers, next-generation creators and thinkers within the world of art, architecture, and design.

He then followed this up with the launch of STIRworld.com in 2019. A global content platform, STIRworld.com serves as a digital publication disseminating content that provokes thinking and encourages dialogue and discussions within the creative community through critical project reviews, in-depth case studies, interviews, conversations, debates, and discourse. The most recent addition to the STIR stable has been STIRpad – a destination for Galleries, Design & Art Studios and Brands to showcase their latest innovations, products, and news.

Julie Payette

Partner & Co-Founder, v2com newswire

Julie Payette is a Founding Partner of v2com newswire, the first and preeminent international architecture and design newswire service for promoting projects to the world’s largest specialized media network — more than 6,650 media outlets in 97 countries. As an international publicist specializing in design and architecture for more than 25 years, Julie remains focused on the highest standards of design and leads v2com’s relentless pursuit of quality projects and the most promising young talent from around the world. In recognition of her extensive industry experience and expertise, Julie has been selected as a jury member for prestigious international competitions including the Architizer A+ Awards, Frame Awards, Architecture MasterPrize, LOOP Design Awards, and Rethinking The Future. In 2021, Julie received the prestigious Ambassador of Quality in Architecture award, a distinction of the Order of Architects of Quebec (OAQ).

Thomas Robinson

Founder, LEVER Architecture

Thomas Robinson is the Founder of LEVER Architecture, a design practice with offices in Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles, California. His firm is widely recognized for material innovation and for pioneering work with Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT). Thomas’ projects encompass first-of-their-kind timber buildings for clients such as The Nature Conservancy and Adidas and include more than $1M in research to develop and test wood building assemblies. He has lectured on mass timber throughout the US, Europe, and South America, and served as the United States Department of Agriculture Wood Innovation Grant Visiting Professor at the University of Arkansas. LEVER was recently recognized by Fast Company as one of the world’s most innovative companies; and in 2017, was named to Architectural Record’s Design Vanguard and to the Architectural League of New York’s Emerging Voices.

Christian Trampedach

Founder, Restless Architecture

Being the founder of the digital architecture community Restless Architecture and Living, Christian Trampedach is an entrepreneur aiming to bridge the gap between the common people and architecture. Since 2016, Christian has grown the Restless community to +2 million followers on Instagram featuring stories about the very best of modern and contemporary architecture.

Photography

Sebastian Weiss

Architectural Photographer

Sebastian Weiss is a multi-awarded architectural photographer from Hamburg, Germany and was photo columnist for AD Architectural Digest Germany between 2013 – 2018. His photographs were published in Wallpaper*, Dezeen, Architizer, ArchDaily, Design Boom, AnOther Magazine, Aesthetica Magazine, to name a few. His work explores the fascination for the aesthetics of buildings and the details of their shapes. Abstracting urban forms, his photographs deconstruct cityscapes, freeing buildings from their spatial context and known surroundings.