Jo Coenen

architect (NL)

Jo Coenen (Heerlen, 1949) studied Architecture at the Technical University of Eindhoven where he graduated in 1975. In 1979 he worked with Aldo van Eyck and Theo Bosch in Amsterdam and that same year he set up his own office in Eindhoven, which he moved to Maastricht in 1970. Today he has offices in Berlin, Luxembourg, Amsterdam and Milan.
Coenen has filled various national and international professorships and has participated in many symposia and congresses.
In all his projects the attention to the context of the plan is as important as the design itself, which ensures a unique approach of the tensioned space between public and private. Influenced and inspired by his many contacts in Central and Southern Europe he has designed many architectural and urban development projects; among the most famous ones are the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam and the master plan for the Centre Céramiqye and its public library in Maastricht.
From 2000 to 2004 he was Chief Government Architect of the Netherlands.
Coenen has won several international awards. Last year he received the International Architecture Award for his design for the Amsterdam Public Library (OBA).

Dirk van den Heuvel

theorist (NL)

Dirk van den Heuvel is an architect and curator, and associate professor with the chair of Architecture and Dwelling at TU Delft. He is an editor of the online journal Footprint and DASH - Delft Architectural Studies on Housing. He is expertise lies with the history and theory of post-war Modern Architecture and he has published about the subject in various journals (Volume, OASE, Hunch, L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui, Arch+ and PIN-UP Magazine).
He curated the show 'Changing Ideals - Re-thinking the House' for NAi M / Bureau Europa, Maastricht in 2008-2009.

Book publications include 'Team 10 (1953-1981). In Search of a Utopia of the Present' (NAi Publishers, Rotterdam 2005, 2nd edition 2008) and 'Alison and Peter Smithson – from the House of the Future to a house of today' (010 Publishers, Rotterdam 2004, Spanish edition 2007 with Ediciones Polígrafa).

Anne Højgaard Jørgensen

head of design Kvadrat (DK)

Anne Højgaard Jørgensen (Denmark, 1953) studied at The Danish Design School and has worked for more than 20 years at Kvadrat, - the past 11 years as head of product development of textiles and textile products for private homes and the contract market.

Anniina Koivu

head of design Abitare magazine (IT)

Anniina Koivu (Helsinki, 1976) is an architect, graduated from the Helsinki University of Technology, a journalist and since 2007 she is the design editor of 'Abitare' magazine in Italy.
She also publishes in 'Abitare China' and 'Abitare Bulgaria', as well as 'Surface' magazine, 'a&u' and 'de Architect'. She has contributed the principal essay to designer Pierre Charpin's first monography. She has been a juror of national and international design competitions and a speaker at events including Festarch, the international festival of architecture in Sardinia, the Tokyo 100% Design conference and Experimenta Lisboa 09. She currently teaches Design History & Theory at the University of art and design Lausanne.

Joep vanLieshout

artist (NL)

Joep van Lieshout (Ravenstein, NL, 1963) is an artist and designer. He studied at the Academy of Modern Art in Rotterdam (NL), Ateliers '63 in Haarlem (NL) and Villa Arson in Nice (FR). In 1995 he set up Atelier van Lieshout (AVL) in Rotterdam, a multidisciplinary collective that carries out projects in the field of architecture, design and contemporary art. In recent years AVL has equally focused on developing large-scale and long-term projects such as AVL-Ville, an anarchistic free state in Rotterdam’s former dockland (2001-2003) and the sinister dystopian project SlaveCity (2005 - ongoing). Slave City is an imaginary, highly profitable concentration camp which can be read as a dark architectural vision of perfect efficiency, and sustainability-as-principle-of-oppression.
Van Lieshout has been awarded numerous prices, amongst which the Kurt Schwitters Award (2004), the Stankowski Award (2002) and the Prix de Rome (1991). In 2008 his work was shown in a vast retrospective in the Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst (Aachen), and earlier in solo’s in the Museum Folkwang, Essen, (2008), the Sprengel Museum, Hannover (2004) and PS1, New York (2001), amongst others. Work by the artist is represented in numerous collections, such as the MOMA, New York and Stedelijk Museum.

Giulio Ridolfo

colour specialist (IT)

Giulio Ridolfo (Italy, 1962) studied at Domus Academy in Milan, and graduated with a Master of Fashion Design in 1985.
Ridolfo has many years experience as textile and colour advisor to the clothing, footwear and interior industries, among others Tods & Hogan, Gianfranco Ferré, Moroso, Vitra, Fritz Hansen, Salone del Mobile and Kvadrat, where he has contributed to the colour setting and design of various fabrics.

Ridolfo’s contribution is not a traditional colour palette representing the full circle of colours. His colour composition has more to do with expressing an attitude or a choice and this has resulted in a highly personal colour palette.
Giulio Ridolfo’s working method could be compared to a patchwork, where he gathers and juxtaposes small fragments of reality in the form of images, colours, patterns and textures. In doing so, he attempts to remain true to the “colour vibes”, to convert them into a usable colour palette without losing the vibrant aspect of the colours.