Search Speakers: Architect

Mokena Makeka is principal and founder of Makeka Design Lab. His highlight was being selected among 100 architects globally by Hertzog and de Meuron to be a part of the Ordos 100. He is a two-time recipient of the CIA Award of Merit and a 2010 nominee for the Johnnie Walker Celebrating Strides Awards in Design.

Brazilian designer Marcelo Rosenbaum sees the house as an element capable of increasing the self-esteem of the Brazilian people, as a place where personal memory and cultural roots have a prominent place, and as a place to include one’s own history.

Alejandro Aravena is the principal of Alejandro Aravena Architects and the executive director of Elemental, a do-tank focusing on projects of social impact.

Shigeru Ban (born 1957 in Tokyo) is an accomplished Japanese and international architect, most famous for his innovative work with paper, particularly recycled cardboard paper tubes used to quickly and efficiently house disaster victims.

David Boira and Zoë Coombes are two architecturally trained furniture designers who work together under the studio name Commonwealth, based in New York. Both hold a Masters of Architecture from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture.

South African-born Lindy Roy founded Roy Co in New York in 2000. Undertaking projects of different sizes and scales the design firm has worked in environments as diverse as Alaska, New York, the Okavango Delta and Singapore.

There’s very little Patricia Urquiola hasn’t turned her hand to in the field of design. Since establishing her studio in 2001, her prolific output has found markets through brands such as De Padova, B&B Italia, Alessi, Driade, Kartell, Flos and Moroso.

Architect Luyanda Mpahlwa is principal and director of MMA Architects in Cape Town. Mpahlwa completed his National Architectural Diploma in 1986 while serving a five-year term in Robben Island Prison, before going on to complete a Masters in Architecture at the Technical University of Berlin in 1997.

Maira Koutsoudakis is the founder and principal of Life architecture, interiors and creative direction. She’s garnered international acclaim for her firm’s multi-award winning work in the areas of luxury resort, boutique hotel, exclusive residential, restaurant projects and product design.

Architects Silvio Rech and Lesley Carstens have spent the past 14 years developing a “hand-crafted haute couture” body of work in Africa. Part of their design philosophy has been to live on site in exotic locations, doing one project at a time, developing a total design and creating a new language of architecture and lifestyle particular to each situation.