Born in Constance (Germany), Jana Revedin is an architect, theorist and writer. The holder of a Ph.D. in architectural and urban sciences and renowned expert in the Bauhaus movement and its transdisciplinary active pedagogy, she studied architecture at Belgrano University Buenos Aires, Princeton School of Architecture and the Polytechnic University of Milan. After receiving her habilitation, she taught at the Università Iuav di Venezia as an assistant to Aldo Rossi.  

In 1996, she founded her architectural practice in Venice, specializing in sustainable architecture and urban rehabilitation. Curator of the first EU Student Competition in Sustainable Architecture gau : di from 2004 to 2012 and Founding President of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture under the patronage of UNESCO in 2006, today she is a full professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the École Spéciale d’Architecture Paris,  a member of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) research laboratory “Environment, City and Society” and serves as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) delegate and advisor to the research and education commission (EDUCOM) of the International Union of Architects (UIA).

Her “Radicant Design” Theory, which calls for situated projects driven by transdisciplinary urban and contextual analysis and the active participation of users and stakeholders in participatory Design and Experimentation processes, is widely recognized. Her latest publications include: Marie-Hélène Contal, Jana Revedin, “Sustainable Design 10: Towards a New Ethics for Architecture and the City”, Gallimard, Paris 2023; Jana Revedin, “L’Architecte et l’existant: Construire avec ce qui est déjà là”, with a foreword by Charles Landry, Gallimard, Paris 2022 ; Jana Revedin, “Radicant Design: How to co-create sustainable living space”, Eliva Press, New York 2021. 

Jana Revedin was appointed a French Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2014 and was honored with the Médaille de la Prospective of the French Académie d’Architecture in 2017. She became a member of the French Académie d’Architecture in 2023.  

Jacopo Galli (born in Crema, Italy) received his Ph.D. in architectural design from Università Iuav di Venezia with a dissertation titled Tropical Toolbox. Fry&Drew and the search for African modernity. He was curator of the architecture section for the “Africa Big Change – Big Chance” exhibition at La Triennale di Milano and CIVA Brussels; the author of the book « Arturo Mezzedimi. Architetto della Superproduzione » (with Benno Albrecht and Filippo De Dominicis) and project manager for the “Makoko Floating School II” project by NLE Studio which was awarded the Silver Lion at the 2016 Venice Biennale.

He was assistant director of the Venice Program at the University of Virginia and visiting professor at Escola da Cidade in Sao Paulo and École Nationale d’Architecture Paris Val de Seine. He is currently an associate researcher at FEEM Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and project manager for the Venezia Sustainability Foundation-VSF.

Since 2014, he has been dealing with the topic of urbicides and reconstructions, organizing the “Urbicide Syria” conference, promoting the “Sketch for Syria” initiative and coordinating the international workshop WAVE 2017 “Syria the Making of the Future”. He has provided consultancy on reconstruction issues to private companies, international agencies such as UN-ESCWA, UNDP, the World Bank with the “Building for Peace” project and public administrations. These research experiences have been collected in the book « Cities Under Pressure » (with Benno Albrecht).

Deniz Incedayi graduated from the German High School in Istanbul in 1979, and studied architecture at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Department of Architecture, graduating in 1986. She completed her Ph.D. thesis at the same university in 1995, her subject being a model for low-cost housing and the rehabilitation of a squatter area in Istanbul through the user participation method.

Since 1986, she has been teaching at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University-Faculty of Architecture in undergraduate and post-graduate programs. Her academic work focuses mainly on social and cultural concerns in the architectural design process, the construction projects studio and on taking an interdisciplinary approach in the architectural design process.

She published and edited several books about architectural design issues, architectural education, the housing environment and participatory methods in architectural design; she has many articles and papers in her academic area and joined many national and international work programs, juries, councils and commissions on national and international platforms. Since 2018, she has been a permanent Jury Member of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture.

She has also held many administrative positions at university such as; Vice Rector, Head of the Department of Architecture, Senate Member, Vice Director of the Institute of Sciences and International Relations Coordinator etc. She has worked at the International Union of Architects (UIA) since 2009 and taken responsibilities in many UIA world congresses around the globe. She was elected as the UIA-Vice President-Region II (2011-2017), as a Council Member-Region II (2009-2011) and as a member of the UNESCO-UIA Education Commission and Validation Council (2009-2023) and performed in several validation visiting panels. Recently she was appointed Co-Director of the Validation Commission for the triennial 2023-26.

She has also undertaken several responsibilities at the Chamber of Architects of Turkey and Istanbul, and was elected as President of the Chamber of Architects of Turkey between 2020-2022; and as the President of the Chamber of Architects of Istanbul Metropolitan Branch between 2010-2014. Since 2006, she has worked as the editor of the architectural journal (mimar.ist), published by the Chamber of Architects of Istanbul.

Xu Tiantian (born in Fujian, China) grew up in a Tulou, a large earthen building traditionally used by the Hakka people in the Fujian province in southeastern China. A Tulou can have a circular or rectangular floor plan, combining living, worship, storage, work, and communal spaces. Xu notes that her architectural interests were probably born out of her childhood in this beautiful traditional home. She received her bachelor’s degree in architecture from Tsinghua University in Beijing and her master’s degree in urban design from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. After working for OMA in the United States and the Netherlands, she founded the DnA_Design and Architecture studio in Beijing. Her “Architectural Acupuncture” for the social and economic revitalization of rural China was selected by UN Habitat as an inspirational practice concerning the links between urban and rural areas.

Awards received by Xu Tiantian include: the WA China Architecture Award (2006 and 2008), the Architectural League New York’s Young Architects Award (2008), the Design Vanguard Award by the Architectural Record (2009); the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture (2019), and the 14^th International Prize for Sustainable Architecture, Gold Medal (2019). In 2022, she received the Swiss Architectural Award for three projects: the reuse of the Shimen Bridge over the Songyin River (2016–17), the Tofu Factory in Caizhai Village (2017–18), and the reuse of the Jinyun Quarries (2021–22). She was also the recipient of the Kunstpreis Berlin in 2023.

Xu Tiantian has taught design as a visiting professor at the Yale School of Architecture and is now a professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing. In 2020, she was appointed as an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects.