Speakers

Principal and Founder, Studio Gang Architects
FAIA, LEED AP
www.studiogang.net

Jeanne Gang is the founder and principal of Studio Gang Architects, a rising international practice based in Chicago whose work confronts pressing contemporary issues. Through her practice—conceived as a collective of architects, designers, and thinkers—Jeanne responds to and reframes questions that lie locally and resound globally. Rooting her designs in compelling ideas rather than repetitive formal principles, Jeanne often arrives at design solutions through cross-field investigations in materials, technology, and the natural and social sciences. Her approach is exemplified by such recent Studio Gang projects as the Aqua Tower (the 2009 Emporis Skyscraper of the Year), the design of Northerly Island (a 91-acre former airfield on Chicago’s lakefront), the Hyderabad Tellapur O2 (a high-rise residential development in Hyderabad, India), Vancouver Pair (two towers for downtown Vancouver, Canada), and CentrePointe (a “bundled tube” tower for the mixed-use development in Lexington, Kentucky, USA).

Since founding Studio Gang in 1997, Jeanne has gone on to win numerous honors, among them an Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and an Emerging Voices Award from the Architectural League of New York. In 2009 she was named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Her work with Studio Gang has been published and exhibited widely, most notably at the International Venice Biennale, the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Art Institute of Chicago. A graduate of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (M.Arch with Distinction), Jeanne also holds a Bachelor of Science with honors from the University of Illinois and studied urban design at ETH Zürich as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. Since 1999 she has been an adjunct faculty member at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Reveal, her first volume on Studio Gang’s work and working process, was released in April 2011 from Princeton Architectural Press.

Partner at Plasma Studio, GB
www.plasmastudio.com

The term Plasma comes from Classic Greek and means modeling, form, fabric, imagination, fiction. In Physics the Plasma State- or fourth state of matter- describes a unique condition of matter arising at a complex overlay of external forces. Plasma, a charged field of particles, conducts energy.

Folding space into space, Plasma draw landscapes into buildings, streets into facades, inside to outside.
Transformative tectonics set spaces, planes and bodies into unforeseen relationships that challenge conventional topographies and spatial codes. While the angular and complex qualities of their forms might superficially affiliate them with ‘computer-generated’ architecture, decision- making is never relinquished to the computer. Strategic reasoning and the desire to produce specificity in place of generics drive tectonic form.
Plasma are unconcerned with the creation of a visual ‘style’, transcending architectural photogenics and, informed by a rich dialogue with philosophical and social theory, they pursue the social in its quotidian and experiential aspects. They venture that the construction of topographic dialogues ‘may enable and potentialize new and different forms of social interaction’.
These topographic dialogues are enacted by an architecture of trajectory and momentum, which responds to the nature of the topographies and the possibilities of engagement.

Plasma is widely recognized as one of the leading emergent architecture and design practices with worldwide scope and outlook. The studio is working on all scales from furniture and installations to urbanism and master planning.

Current projects include the complete masterplanning, landscape and building design of the 2011 International Horticultural Expo, China, a series of office blocks for Ordos, China, a new innovative street lighting system for EWO and several new-built residential and hospitality projects with a fresh take on Alpine vernacular through new innovative construction techniques and spatial modulation.

Through combining academic research– at the Architectural Association and other leading institutions- with cutting-edge practice Plasma is developing advanced digital tools and methodologies to analyse complex challenges and respond by synthesizing spatial effects, functions, ergonomics.

This approach brought the practice many distinctions such as Zhulong’s 'This Decade of Architecture in China', the 2011 Wallpaper Design Award, 2008 ContractWorld Award, 2008 Next Generation Award, 2004 Design Vanguard, 2002 BD/Corus ‘Young Architect of the Year Award’, and the 2002 UK Galvanizing Award.

Plasma’s work has been published widely- from leading design magazines to broadsheets and included in some of the most important compendiums on recent architecture- and exhibited internationally in recent solo shows at the DAZ- German Architecture Centre Berlin 2010 and Galeria Come Se, Rome 2009.

Director of s lab and the Zero Waste SA Research Centre for Sustainable Design and Behaviour, AU
www.slab.com.au

Professor Steffen Lehmann began his appointment as Professor and Director at UniSA in August 2010. He is the Professor of Sustainable Design, and Director of the Zero Waste SA Research Centre for Sustainable Design and Behaviour (sd+b), at the University of South Australia. Until July 2010, he held the Chair of the Architecture School at the University of Newcastle (NSW). He has been a professor holding a Personal Chair in Australia since December 2002.

Professor Lehmann has held the UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Urban Development for Asia and the Pacific, from 2008 to 2010. He received his doctorate from the Technical University of Berlin, an AA Dipl. degree from the Architectural Association London, and a Master degree from the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz.

Between 1990 and 1993, Steffen Lehmann has worked with James Stirling in London and with Arata Isozaki in Tokyo, before establishing his own ideas-driven, research-based practice in Berlin. Since 1992 he has been practicing as registered architect and urban designer in Germany and established his own practice, the Space Laboratory for Architectural Research and Design (s_Lab) in 1993 in Berlin, to pursue a more ethically correct practice. He has won a number of competition awards and prizes in architecture, participated in and organized numerous international exhibitions in art and architecture, and published books on sustainable architecture and urban design, and on urban culture. The firm’s work has been widely published and has received awards and prizes internationally. Current work includes urban design of Australia’s first low-to-no-carbon emission masterplan.

Steffen Lehmann is well known and respected both nationally and internationally for a range of contributions to the design community, including his role with the Australian Academy of Science in formulating the report ‘Climate Change and the Urban Environment’ (2009-2010) for the Australian Government. He is the General-Editor of the US-based Journal of Green Building (since 2006) and convenor of the international conference on ‘Sustainable Architecture and Urban Development’ in July 2010 in Amman. Over the last 15 years, he made significant contributions and presented his research at over 350 conferences in 25 countries. His latest books include: Back to the City, Hatje Cantz Publisher (Stuttgart, 2009). The Principles of Green Urbanism, Earthscan Publisher (London, 2010).

Professor at Estonian Academy of Arts, FI
www.panulehtovuori.net
www.livady.fi
www.urbanistika.ee

Co-founder of Livady Architects, a Helsinki-based practice, Panu Lehtovuori has worked in a variety of research, teaching and design positions. In 2007-2008, he was the director (in charge) of the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the Helsinki University of Technology. Since 2009, he is full professor of Urban Studies at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn. Lehtovuori has published several books and scientific articles. He is member of the editorial board of ARK The Finnish Journal of Architecture and The Finnish Journal of Urban Studies. Lehtovuori and his team have got prizes in architectural and urban design competitions.

Recent publications
Lehtovuori, Panu (2010). Experience and Conflict. The Production of Urban Space. Farnham: Ashgate.
Lehtovuori, Panu, Lindqvist, Mikko & Eräpalo, Suvi (2009). Tampere and Forssa. Morphology, meanings, regimes. In: Nienke van Boom and Hans Mommaas (toim.), Comeback Cities. Transformation Strategies for Former Industrial Cities. Rotterdam: NAi. Lehtovuori, Panu & Havik, Klaske (2009). Alternative politics in urban innovation. In: Kong, Lily and Justin O’Connor (eds.). Creative Economies, Creative Cities: Asian-European Perspectives. Springer Verlag, pp. 207-227
Vallas, Hannu; Schulman, Harry & Lehtovuori, Panu (2008). Helsinki ilmasta. Helsinki from above. Helsinki: Edita.

Vice president at Kone Ltd, FI
www.kone.fi

Anne Stenros (Helsinki, Finland) graduated as Master of Architecture from University of Oulu, Finland and University of California, Berkeley. She has the doctorate in technology in the field of architectural theory from Helsinki University of Technology. Since 1995 to 2004 she acted as a Managing Director of Design Forum Finland. In 2005 she acted as Executive Director of Hong Kong Design Centre. Currently she is Design Director (Vice President, Design) of KONE Corporation. She has lectured around the world and written articles on the theory and philosophy of architecture and design. Her latest book Design ®Evolution (2005) is about corporate design strategy. She is also the member of the business panel on future EU innovation policy by DG Enterprise and Industry of European Commission (2009) and the member of the board of Tampere University of Technology.

Professor at Tongji University, PRC
www.tongji.edu.cn/english

Dr. WU Siegfried Zhiqiang is the Chief Planner of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo Site and Assistant President of Tongji University. He also serves as Co-Chair of the International Steering Committee of the World Planning Schools Congress, Director of the Planning Education Steering Council of China and Vice President of the Urban Planning Society of China. Due to his contributions to urban planning and architecture education in China, Dr. WU has been appointed as a permanent member of the UNESCO-UIA World Architectural Education Council.

Dr. WU is an active scholar, a dedicated educator and a successful practitioner in the fields of architecture and urban planning. He has published numerous books, book chapters, monographs and academic journal papers. He has also been involved in many urban planning and design projects in China and abroad, including the Post-Disaster City Reconstruction Plan in Dujiangyan, Sichuan Province, China, and the New Town Plan for Saint Petersburg, Russia. Dr. WU has dedicated most of his time to improving urban development and human settlement in China. He received his Doctor of Engineering degree from the Technical University of Berlin, Germany.