NY Architectural Design Awards Panel

Spain

Benjamin Calleja

Founder & CEO, Livit Design

Benjamin Calleja serves as the CEO of Livit Design, the founder of Fast Fine Restaurant Group and is also a Partner within the Passionality Group.

As the CEO of the world's largest restaurant design company, his primary focus revolves around enhancing brand performance through the design of guest experiences. He has a global presence, actively working in 40 countries across five continents, where a new restaurant is created approximately every 8 hours.

He is a recognized global authority in the field of hospitality design and technology, often sought after as a speaker at conferences, events, and masterclasses. Additionally, he holds prestigious memberships in organizations such as The American Institute of Architects and is a registered architect in multiple European countries including Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Luxembourg, and Sweden.

China

Lichen Ding

Founder & Chief Designer, DLCA Architects

Lichen Ding is an award-winning designer with experience spanning across multiple disciplines and industries, being dabbled in architecture, interior space, fields of art installations, and service areas throughout culture, hotel, commercial, office, real estate and brand planning.

He has a passion for art since childhood and has always aspired to design for spatial comfort and simplicity. His designs are well received by clients as a blend of inspiration and functionality. With solid knowledge in architecture and interior designs, he started his career working with land developers after getting professional qualifications in his early twenties.

His project designs have won several international authoritative awards, and has served as a Grand Jury Member of a prestigious design award based in Italy.

Thailand

Somchana Kangwarnjit

Executive Creative Director, Prompt Design

Somchana Kangwarnjit graduated from King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang with a degree in industrial design. In 2007, he founded Prompt Design, helping his clients to build brands and businesses by delivering new experiences in strategies and design executions.

United States

Miro Kirov

Lead UX Designer,

Miro Kirov has experience judging in various award organizations for the past years. He has been in the industry for more than 10 years, organizing and participating in multiple design critique/sparring sessions, which has helped him develop his critical thinking and diverse skill-set. Also being on the other side of the fence as a contestant in the Muse awards has helped him build up understanding and empathy for the end-users.

United States

Olivia Santilli

Partner, Cummins&Partners

Olivia has built a business in Cummins&Partners New York that continues to surpass all expectations through relentless determination. She has instilled an unlimiting and optimistic energy that permeates through the agency’s work, client dealings, and creative delivery. She has cultivated a solution-driven culture fostering an affirming reputation that continues to be the nucleus of their growth.

She has fortified her position as a cultural navigator. With this, she has been sought after as a market disruptor and invited to speak at industry events that explore the defining values of this next generation and how creative agencies are adapting to the new world of always-on, and purpose-driven desires of customers.

This has strengthened her view on steering brands towards a more meaningful, galvanizing role that cultivates communities in a fragmented cultural landscape.

Her work has led the agency to notable recognition such as AdWeek’s 2019 Best Travel & Hospitality Team, AdWeek’s OOH Impact Awards Grand Prix Winner - Strategy, among 11 more awards won for the acclaimed Koalas of NYC global campaign and a further 10 making finalist status. She has also been honored for her creative work at the 2021 UN SDG Action Awards in demonstrating significant impact, innovation, and scope for scale.

In October, 2020 Cummins&Partners New York ranked in the top Adweek 100: Fastest Growing Companies globally with a three-year revenue growth of 111% despite being in the midst of a global economic crisis.

India

Takbir Fatima

Director, DesignAware

Takbir Fatima is an architect and director of the experimental architecture and interdisciplinary design studio, DesignAware and a generative design/computation workshop, the Fractals Workshop.

Takbir has been to various cities in India and Middle East and has taught online worldwide. Takbir also has a MArch from the Design Research Lab at the AA School of Architecture.

She has over 12 years of experience in the field of architecture and is closely connected with academia, teaching at the Boston Architectural College, CEPT University and Meta Open Arts (formerly Facebook Analog Research Lab).

She has served as a juror in multiple events as well as academic juries, and has exhibited her work at various design platforms. Takbir has also been a TEDx speaker in 2017. DesignAware was longlisted as the Dezeen Emerging Architecture Studio of the year 2020.

Indonesia

Erwin Hawawinata

Principal Architect and Interior Designer, Hawawinata n Associates

Situated in Jakarta, Erwin has more than 20 years of experience in the architecture and interior design industry, mainly focusing on residential projects. Throughout the years, he was directly involved in developing concepts for many accommodations. Therefore, for his day-to-day tasks involves him sketching concepts for buildings, choosing the appropriate material needed for construction, and directly supervising the architectural and interior design progress - setting of the furnitures and/or finishings. Erwin established his firm Hawawinata N Associates, in which he designed many residences, private offices, and galleries for the Indonesian crème de la crème. Furthermore, through his many designing endeavors, he has won the 2020 Interior Designer award from Luxury Lifestyle Awards.

South Korea

Joon Kwon

Managing Director / Co-Founder, LR Seoul

Joon Kwon is the Managing Director / Co-Founder of LR Seoul, since 2021.

He has started his career at GREY GROUP, Korea in 2008. Then, he joined Geometry Global followed by Havas as an executive creative director. During 13 years of his Creative career, he has created numerous successful advertising campaigns of renowned global brands such as BMW, Emirates, Heineken, and LG. He has been rewarded with various advertising awards.

He is also a creator committed to working for a better society. His works have been recognized with prominent design awards such as the iF Design Award and IDEA (International Design Excellence Award) in the Social Impact category.

Bulgaria

Vasil Velchev

Media & Product Life Cycle Manager, Europe, Ideal Standard International NV

Graduating as a master of electrical engineering, Vasil Velchev actually has more than 10 years of experience as a graphic designer in international companies. In the beginning, product design was more like a hobby, but after some worldwide publications and awards he started to believes more in his ideas.

Several years ago he started a project called MAGMA which has the purpose to collect all of his creations under one roof. The name was chosen on purpose. It tries to describe the designer's feelings about the original idea that stays at the beginning of every project, to wit: it has to be always in 'liquid' form, to be transformed constantly in order to see every form it could take, to be kept alive till the idea became a solid product.

Vasil is also a member of the Grand Jury panel for other prestigious awards, and he has won about 20 international awards in various categories, mostly in furniture design from design awards worldwide.

Malaysia

Jae Leong

Judging Committee Chairperson, International Awards Associate (IAA)

As the chairperson of IAA's extensive judging committee, Jae serves as a leader within the organization, spearheading efforts to ensure quality and creative excellence in key areas such as design, creative advertising, marketing communications, video production, and business. She is also a primary award representative at IAA and has successfully administered assessments throughout her career.

Jae places particular emphasis on coordinating strategic arrangements across diverse jury panels, establishing herself as one of the industry's finest. With a keen eye for management, Jae has executed her role meticulously, making sure that each entrant receives the evaluations they rightly deserve for their efforts. Moreover, her work with professionals worldwide has positioned her at the nexus of specialization, allowing her to develop top-notch communication and relationship management skills.

New Zealand

Jeremy Smith

Design Director, Irving Smith Architects, Adjunct Professor

Jeremy is the Design Director of Irving Smith Architects, a research-based design practice working in sensitive environments throughout Aotearoa New Zealand and abroad. The practice has won a string of international awards, multiple New Zealand Architecture Awards in public, residential and commercial categories, and have three times represented New Zealand at the Prague International Architecture Festival, where their Soft Context: Soft Architecture exhibitions presented their practice approach of participating with existing landscapes before generating new contexts.

Jeremy writes for Architecture New Zealand, has judged national architecture awards in New Zealand and India, and at World Architecture Festivals in Singapore, Berlin, Amsterdam and Lisbon, while continuing to regularly lecture about the practices work and research around the world. He is the 2023 John G. Williams Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design in Arkansas, USA, an Adjunct Professor at the University of the Free State in South Africa, an International Advisor to the Saveetha College of Architecture and Design in Chennai, India, and formerly an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Auckland, where he teaches iterative design at Masters-level and undertook a design-based PHD between practice commitments. Key to his practice, teaching and research is understanding how buildings inhabit an environment that constantly undergoes change, be it in city or rural landscapes.

China

Wu Wei

Founder and creative director, IN.X Design

As the founder and creative director of IN.X based in Beijing, the interior architect Wu Wei is a master in Chinese catering space design. He is the designated designer for some popular restaurants in China, such as Siji Minfu Roast Duck Restaurant, Hu Da Restaurant, etc. With the design philosophy of “Strategy First, Design Follows”, he has maintained close strategic partnerships with many leading Chinese catering brands. With deep attainments in aesthetics and global perspective in business, he provides accurate business and design strategy for brands, thus, creating sustainable vitality for brand development. Wu Wei has witnessed and nourished the development of many Chinese new-generation catering brands.

China

Tao Chen & Jade Lee

DesignRe-explore Founder & Co-Founder, DesignRe-explore

Tao Chen & Jade Lee are the founders and co-founders of DesignRe-explore. DesignRe-explore (www.indesignadd.com) is an international media agency headquartered in Guangzhou with offices in London. DesignRe-explore has also established design industry platforms such as HEPER, an international design masterpiece sharing platform, and iawards, an international design competition platform. Tao Chen and Jade Lee have been working in the architectural and interior design industry for nearly a decade, and have extensive experience in brand strategy, public relations and marketing planning. They have served over 200 founders, partners and managers of architectural and interior design firms, and have selected and sent designers or organizations to participate in prestigious international design competitions and helped them win nearly 600 awards. Tao Chen and Jade Lee are committed to providing a platform for Chinese and foreign designers to exchange and collaborate, aiming to discover and promote original and innovative design works, and to promote design practitioners who have made outstanding contributions in the fields of real estate development, architectural design, interior design and aesthetic creativity worldwide, so as to select industry experts and design talents with innovative contributions, forward-looking ideas and aesthetic creativity, and to provide them with a preferred platform to showcase their best works and help their business development. The event is designed to select industry experts and design talents with innovative contributions, forward-looking ideas, aesthetic creativity, and provide them with a preferred platform to showcase their work and facilitate business development. Over the years, Tao Chen and Jade Lee have integrated and cooperated with more than 1,000 media outlets and have a media publishing matrix with art and design, real estate and home, news and information, culture and entertainment as the core.

Taiwan

Peng Hsu Chen

Design Director, Aesthetice of space design Co., Ltd.

Design Director Peng-Hsu Chen is a visionary in the realm of spatial design, deeply committed to aligning human living spaces with the natural rhythms of the earth. Embodying a philosophy of simplicity and humility, Chen skillfully infuses these principles into every aspect of his designs. His illustrious career spans over a decade, marked by significant participation in both national and international competitions. Chen's innovative approach and dedication have earned him consecutive international awards, cementing his reputation in the design world.

Beyond his accomplishments in design competitions, Chen is recognized for his extensive collection of international professional certifications. His expertise and insight have led to prestigious roles as a judge in design competitions across Taiwan and China. At the heart of Chen's design philosophy is a harmonious blend of earth sustainability, spatial aesthetics, and health considerations. He integrates environmental consciousness and human well-being into his designs through the careful selection and application of building materials.

Chen champions creation over mere manufacturing, placing the ecosystem at the forefront of his work and emphasizing the delicate balance between humans and the environment. His designs are meticulously crafted to ensure the health of users while respecting and cherishing the resources provided by nature. Through his work, Chen strives to achieve a sustainable coexistence between humans and their environment, creating designs that are not only environmentally friendly but also rich in aesthetic value. His commitment to this ethos results in spaces that are a testament to sustainable, beautiful living, benefiting both the planet and their inhabitants.

China

Wu Ziqin

Founder / Design Director, Lq & ArchiStudio (Zhuhai)

Wu Ziqin is one of the first undergraduate students in China to graduate in interior and furniture design, with over 20 years of accumulated experience in environmental space design. Additionally, he is the first designer of art container architecture and co-working spaces in Zhuhai，ICDA Senior Interior Designer. Lq & ArchiStudio (Zhuhai) was established in 2015, composed of architects and interior designers with international perspectives. The company's business covers various fields, including architecture, interior, and furniture design, with projects located in several countries in Asia. In recent years, the company has focused on historic building renovations and redevelopment projects, successfully completing projects such as Beishan International Cultural and Creative Community.

United Arab Emirates

Khaled Elnems

Q.C. & Industrial Product Designer, PARSONS Infrastructure & Technology Group Inc.

Khaled Elnems, a born and Abu Dhabi-based R&D Innovations Q.C., possesses vast expertise as a jury member on the Committee for International Engineering Invention & Innovation Exhibitions. Furthermore, he serves as a Co-founder and Head of Delegation for International Innovations Exhibitions in Egypt and the U.A.E, advocating for young inventors and representing them in local and international events. With a strong focus on supporting women and young marginalized inventors, he actively fosters cooperation, enabling them to achieve international recognition and rewards.

United States

Artem Kropovinsky

Founder and Principal Designer, Arsight

Artem Kropovinsky is more than just an expert in interior design; he is a luminary who has dedicated over a decade to the industry. His passion for the craft is palpable, with his work extending far beyond mere occupation to a testament of life's remarkable pursuits. As the visionary behind Arsight, a renowned New York-based design studio, Artem has led groundbreaking projects across both residential and commercial spaces. His versatility and adaptability have consistently set him apart.

Recognition of Artem's prowess was unmistakably evident when he emerged as a finalist in the NYCxDESIGN Awards. This acknowledgment underlines both his innovative spirit and his profound respect for cultural heritage in design. Always on the cutting edge, Artem champions the integration of the Metaverse, Virtual Reality (VR), and Augmented Reality (AR) in his projects. Such pioneering efforts have redefined client experiences, particularly for partners like Societhy. By offering immersive pre-implementation visualizations, he allows clients to fully grasp their future spaces, thereby solidifying their confidence and minimizing potential risks.

Artem's professional relationships tell another story of his excellence. His collaborations with luxury property developers in New York have consistently delivered dual benefits: an elevated aesthetic appeal and significant financial returns. Such projects have optimized completion timelines and meaningfully boosted property valuations. As a leader, Artem shines in mentoring roles. At the helm of a dynamic design team, he emphasizes individual growth, ensuring that every member reaches their zenith of potential.

Further, Artem's collaborations span a diverse spectrum. From esteemed furniture makers like Design Galleria Kitchen and Bath Studio to tech innovators such as Virtual Staging Solutions, his partnerships are indicative of a holistic approach to design solutions. A unique feather in his cap is his expertise in marrying historical reverence with contemporary design. Notable projects like the Weyanoke Hotel and Catbird Restaurants bear testimony to this skill, wherein spaces are crafted to be both enduring and current.

Portugal

Tiago Russo

Chief Design Officer, The Craft Irish Whiskey Co.

With 12 years of design experience, Tiago Russo emphasizes that design goes beyond aesthetics and functionality, focusing on creating user experiences. He has worked with renowned brands like The Macallan, Louis Vuitton, and McLaren, demonstrating their expertise in luxury lifestyle domains. Possessing a Master's degree in Product Design with a specialization in Automotive Design, Tiago Russo is dedicated to achieving perfection in design, from concept to production, while staying attuned to culture and innovation. He believes in the importance of extensive design knowledge for impartial judging. He sees inspiration as a result of knowledge and research, essential for crafting innovative designs.

United States

Yiying Tang

Architectural Designer, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF)

With a background at the globally renowned architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates PC (KPF), Yiying Tang offers a unique global perspective and extensive adaptability in tailoring architectural designs to diverse contexts. Having earned a Master of Architecture Degree from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Architecture Degree from Zhejiang University, she possesses a strong academic foundation for critical evaluation of architectural concepts. As a LEED AP, BD+C accredited professional, Yiying Tang is dedicated to sustainable and environmentally responsible design, prioritizing projects that positively impact both the environment and communities. She has a track record of receiving awards and recognition within the architectural community, with their innovative design skills acknowledged by industry experts and featured in international news publications. With this wealth of experience and expertise, she brings a formidable perspective to the judging panel.

United States

Danilo Villanueva

Creative Director, MRM/Mccann and Makina & Co

Danilo Villanueva Jr is a Creative Director, Design Director, and Entrepreneur with 15+ years of international experience working in multinational agencies like TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles, Saatchi Los Angeles, Leo Burnett Dubai, BBDO Beijing and MRM/Mccann New York.

He’s built global and regional integrated campaigns for major brands like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, General Motors, Toyota, Emirates Airlines, Cartier, VISA, Enfamil, Tencent, Sony and others. He is also Creative Director & Founder of Makina & Co, a creative studio that provides design solutions for its own brands and for other local brands that play in the world of accessories/apparel and automotive with work that have been featured by international style, watch and news publications like: Esquire, Monochrome Watches, Entrepreneur, Worn & Wound, Time & Tide Watches, ABS-CBN, Oracle Time, Manila Times and others.

His work has gained recognition from international creative organizations such as: ADC Annual Awards, Dubai Lynx, Webby, IDA International Design Awards, NY Product Design Awards, Design Boom, European Product Design Awards, Luerzer’s Archive, Madstars, Effies, London Design Awards, Muse Design Awards, London International Creative Competition, Architecture & Design Community and others.

Russia

Ekaterina Elizarova

Owner, Elizarova Design Studio

Ekaterina Elizarova is a Russian interior and product designer. Her furniture, lightings and accessories are mostly manufactured in Italy, and can be seen during main design exhibitions in Europe and Asia. In addition to her own brand, Ekaterina works with leading European companies including SMANIA, MATLIGHT MILANO, DE GOURNAY, RM, ASKO, CAPITAL COLLECTION, BOSA, PRECIOSA, GIULIA NOVARS and other internationally recognized brands. The collections of interior objects designed by Ekaterina Elizarova can be annually seen at the largest exhibitions in Milan, London, Paris, New York, Beijing, Singapore and other design significant cities of the world. Since 2014 the design objects by Ekaterina Elizarova are officially presenting at the auctions in Paris.

United States

Jagdish Shankar Zagade

Systems Engineer, Raytheon tecnology

Jagdish Zagade, a distinguished Senior Systems Engineer, stands as a linchpin in his department, leading the test equipment/rigs group and spearheading innovation and capability enhancements in the lab test environment. Overseeing a team comprising Systems and Software Engineers, Jagdish efficiently manages work assignments and progress tracking for Engineer Technicians, fostering a collaborative atmosphere. His collaborative efforts facilitating a comprehensive understanding of project needs and enabling the development of technical designs. Jagdish's role encompasses providing precise bid inputs for contracts, underscoring the critical importance of accuracy in defining future work for Collins Aerospace. Notably, Jagdish introduces a visionary approach, emphasizing commonality and reusability in test rigs, aligning present endeavors with future benefits, showcasing forward-thinking leadership. Beyond his technical prowess, Jagdish is lauded for his role in ensuring first-time quality in the rigorous Avionics environment. His innovative solutions contribute to higher-quality outcomes and sustain a robust business relationship with Boeing. As a top-tier engineer, Jagdish's exceptional blend of technical acumen, leadership, and extensive experience earns him consistent recognition and elevated pay. His profound knowledge, adaptability, and collaborative leadership style make him a highly respected figure within the organization, reinforcing his position as a key leader in the field.