Join Laka Competition ’21
Architecture Reacts.

Prof. Hanaa Dahy (architect, engineer, director of the BioMat research team at University of Stuttgart ITKE)
Hanaa leads the BioMat department as a Junior Professor in ITKE, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning in Stuttgart, Germany. She designed and fabricated many innovative sustainable and smart building products and has registered European and international patents, earned numerous Design Awards and industrial project funds. Hanaa developed new architectural design philosophies towards sustainable future architecture, based on applying alternative materials, digital fabrication, and optimized geometric constellations through parametric computational design. Hanaa’s research fields: architecture inspired by nature, biocomposites, biomimetics, sustainability, smart materials, ecologic building Systems, product design, and digital fabrication techniques.

Dr. Vasilija Abramovic (architect, researcher, exhibitions director at the Interactive Architecture Lab)
Vasilija is a scientific committee member and editorial board member for scientific journals. She held academic roles across several universities such as the Faculty of Architecture in Prague, University of Westminster, and the Bartlett School of Architecture. Vasilija’s interests are in the design and fabrication of responsive environments with recent exhibitions in France, Netherlands, and Belgium. Her Ph.D. thesis used meta-material kinetic structures to explore an “Artificial Life Approach to Interactive Architecture” that has been published in conferences and journals, most recently at ALIFE 2019, ACADIA 2018, and eCAADe 2017.

Dr. Peter Kuczia (architect, initiator and curator of the Design that Educates Awards)
Educator and expert in ecological constructions. In 2008, he defended his Ph.D. dissertation on solar architecture in Germany. Author of ‘Educating Buildings – Learning Sustainability through Displayed Design’. He has been awarded multiple international prizes, including International Design Award (US), Iconic Award (DE), DNA Paris Design Awards (FR), LICC London Creative Competition (UK), German Design Award (DE), a national nomination to the MIES VAN DER ROHE AWARD for European Architecture, and many others. His work, which covers a wide range of building types, has been exhibited and published around the world. Jury member in international competitions and initiator and curator of the Design that Educates Awards.

Gianluca Santosuosso (architect, designer, cofounder and lead designer at UOOU studio)
UOOU studio specialises in architecture that connects man-made environments with nature, putting eco- and human-oriented design at the core of its mission. Evolving from its founders’ past experience in experiential design, the studio works with a wide range of clients worldwide, such as in the commercial and residential sector, brands, local communities and cultural institutions. Gianluca has a Master in Self-Sufficient Building Design from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IaaC) and an MSc in building engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin. He has a strong track record in eco-architecture and experiential design, and has worked for a variety of international design firms including: Freeman, ecoLogicStudio in London, Carlo Ratti Associati in Turin and MDLab/Samsung in Munich. www.uooustudio.com