Jury

Dario Donato is Founder and Design Principal of Spatialconnection(s), responsible for the management, research and creative direction of the firm both in Italy and in international markets.

Since 2009 he has been worked both in practice and academia, from design as research to research as practice.

Before founding Spatialconnection(s) he has worked in several innovative and award-winning  international offices in Italy, China, and The Netherlands. He collaborated as Design Architect on a diverse range of high profile projects such as Gousen Securities Tower in Shenzhen with studio Fuksas, Wisdom Valley with Nbbj in Nanjing and University Church in Liepzig for Erick van Egeraat, plus some prize winning competitions.

Dario’s work is the result of the mediate world “From Complexity to Simplicity” that support the future implementation of an active conversation on the cultural agencies of current technologies and the ways they impact the architectural discipline for producing unconventional engineered architecture. Dario has started to pursue this line of research at IN/ARCH (National Italian Institute of Architecture) in Rome for the Master Emerging Technologies where he was the instructor of Scripting and Computational Geometry unit.

Since 2010 he taught and collaborated with academic and professional institutions in Europe and the Middle East including IUAV, IN/ARCH, Higher College of Technology...

Nowadays Dario is co-Programme Director and tutor at IAAC GSS Oman, investigating the post digital paradigm and its application in a context of multicultural society.

Dario received his master degree in Architectural Engineering at University of Pisa (Italy) and lately he received multiple awards as Young Talent of Architecture in Italy with two projects located in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Award winning Architect, Industrial Designer and Researcher based in Dubai. Founder of Studio Niko Kapa, a multidisciplinary team that supports innovation using research as an integral part of the design process. The practice balances between architecture and product design, embracing the language of functionality, construction efficiency, and brand identity.

Churchill Towers, Floor 16, P.O. Box 488039, Dubai, UAE

Jelena Ristić Trajković is an architect, educator and author. She holds a Ph.D. degree in Architecture within the field of Architectural Design and Contemporary Architecture (2016). Ristic Trajkovic is an Assistant Professor at the Department for Architecture, University of Belgrade – Faculty of Architecture, Serbia, where she is involved in architectural design courses. She also teaches Design Methodology at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade. Her main research focus is on design methodology, design education, social and ecological aspects of design, environment and behavior theories in architectural design and heritage protection, and in particular on appropriate methods to understand different urban narratives. She is involved in several national and international research projects with topics mainly focused on modern heritage, urban narratives, housing, and sustainability.

For my interest and passion, I am convinced that the appropriate design of each space improves the quality of life of the user. For this reason, I consider each new project as a personal challenge and I always aim for space production of the most high quality thanks to a dynamic architecture. Sociability, creativity, sense of organization and methodical sense are elements that characterize me.

The design of spaces that represent a preview of the future human behavior, where a balance between environment and technology is the goal to improve architecture and life.

My approach is holistically focusing on creative problem solving and critical thinking focusing on the client. Expertise from feasibility studies and public buildings in urban contexts, especially educational buildings. Interdisciplinarily experience with CLT wooden buildings and transformation projects. I am driven by the desire to create spaces that will have a long-term positive ands sustainable impact on a community.

Vernacular Architecture, History of Urbanism, Architectural Theory, Architectural Design