Architecture Matters
24–26 March 2021

Founder of Buromoscow, Moscow

Olga Aleksakova and Julia Burdova founded Buromoscow in 2004. The first architects in the post-Soviet period to focus on prefabricated mass housing, they aim to add beauty to the usual monotony. Their clients include all major project developers, such as PIK and LSR Group. Burdova studied at the Moscow Architectural Institute. Aleksakova studied at Delft University of Technology and then worked for OMA, Rotterdam. Since 2018 they have taught at Columbia GSAPP, New York. Their work has received numerous awards, including for their design of Triumph Square in the centre of Moscow.

www.buromoscow.com

Founder of Kontextur, Leipzig

Katharina Benjamin studied architecture at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. She worked for Peter Zumthor at Atelier Zumthor in Haldenstein (CH) and as project coordinator for the XIV. International Bauhaus-Colloquium at the the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. In 2017 Benjamin founded the digital architecture platform Kontextur. Since 2019 she is working as research assistant at the Chair of Architectural Design and Construction I at TU Dresden.

www.kontextur.info

Founder of Buromoscow, Moscow

Olga Aleksakova and Julia Burdova founded Buromoscow in 2004. The first architects in the post-Soviet period to focus on prefabricated mass housing, they aim to add beauty to the usual monotony. Their clients include all major project developers, such as PIK and LSR Group. Burdova studied at the Moscow Architectural Institute. Aleksakova studied at Delft University of Technology and then worked for OMA, Rotterdam. Since 2018 they have taught at Columbia GSAPP, New York. Their work has received numerous awards, including for their design of Triumph Square in the centre of Moscow.

www.buromoscow.com

Managing Director OPES, Grünwald

With a doctorate in civil engineering, Jürgen Büllesbach spent ten years at the helm of Bayerische Hausbau, one of the largest integrated real estate companies in Germany. Since 2018 Büllesbach has been managing director of Opes Immobilien, which bundles the real estate activities of Heinz Hermann Thiele, the recently deceased company patriarch of Knorr-Bremse and a major Lufthansa shareholder. The broadly diversified portfolio of OPES Immobilien includes building land and project development as well as asset management and the marketing of its own office, hotel, and residential properties. Properties in Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, and select locations abroad are managed from the company headquarters in Grünwald.

opes-immobilien.de

Chairman of the board at Büschl Group, Munich

Ralf Büschl joined his father’s general planning firm in 1987 and launched his first own companies in the real estate business the following year. In 2000, he joined the executive board of the company group at the time, and became managing director of various property companies. Over the years Büschl structured and expanded the group of companies, leading to the BÜSCHL corporate group. Under Ralf Büschl’s leadership as CEO, the group is now one of the most important project developers in the Munich metropolitan region.

bueschl-gruppe.de

Head of Project Development at Signa, Munich

Alexander Cronauer studied civil engineering and real estate economics and has many years of experience in real estate development. Since 2014 he is working at SIGNA Real Estate and is in his position as Head of Project Development responsible for all of SIGNA’s project developments in southern Germany. Previously, he worked as Senior Project Manager for MAB Development, a subsidiary of Rabobank in Frankfurt am Main.

www.signa.at

Writer and Partner at OMA, Rotterdam

Reinier de Graaf is a partner in the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), where he leads projects in Europe, Russia and the Middle East. He is the co-founder of OMA’s think-tank AMO and Sir Arthur Marshall Visiting Professor of Urban Design at the Department of Architecture of the University of Cambridge. He is the author of the book “Four Walls and a Roof: The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession”, named best books of 2017 by both the Financial Times and the Guardian. Recently he published his first novel “The Masterplan”.

www.oma.eu

author, journalist, Munich

Katja Eichinger studied film and film theory at the British Film Institute in London. After a London-based career as a journalist specializing in cinema, pop culture and consumerism Eichinger moved to Germany in 2006 and has since been writing books and scripts. 2018 she produced “Junkspace,“ an album of electronic music dedicated to the shopping mall and featuring Rem Koolhaas. Among her books is the bestseller “BE” about her late husband Bernd Eichinger. Her new book “Fashion and other Neuroses” will be published in April 2020 by the Aufbauverlag.

www.katjaeichinger.com

Founder of Kinzo, Berlin-München

They knew each other from the Berlin nightlife. Then in 2005, Karim El-Ishmawi, Martin Jacobs, and Chris Middleton founded Kinzo. Today the studio has projects around the world, working at the intersection of interior design and design. In 2020 they opened a second office in Munich. Their signature coolness goes well beyond their many award-winning designs. Their clients include adidas, Soundcloud and Zalando.

www.kinzo-berlin.de

Founder and Editor-in-chief of Dezeen, London

Dezeen is widely regarded as the most influential and popular design website in the world. As a 3D design graduate, Fairs began his journalism career writing for architecture titles Building Design and Building and also freelanced for publications including Blueprint, The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday and Conde Nast Traveller. Fairs launched icon, the international architecture and design magazine, in 2003. At the end of 2006 he  launched Dezeen and the site has grown rapidly ever since, now attracting over two million unique visitors every month. 2017 Marcus Fairs was the first digital journalist to be awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

www.dezeen.com

Author and editor of Bauwelt, Munich

Friedrich gratuated in architecture and urban planning at the TU Darmstadt. In many of his articles Jan Friedrich addresses the question of how the debate on current political and social changes – sustainability issues, digitization, land policy, etc. –  is reflected in architecture and urban planning and in the work of planners.

www.bauwelt.de

Head of Planning Directorate, Cologne

Since September 2019 Eva Herr heads the planning directorate in Cologne. Originally from Hamburg, she studied architecture in Weimar and planning in the United Kingdom. She worked as a planner and urban designer in Essex and London before returning to Germany. Herr subsequently took up a position as a planning director in a Hamburg Borough. Back in Cologne she and her team work, amongst other things, on several large scale brownfield developments, public space projects and new greenfield sites.

www.stadt-koeln.de

Managing Partner of ABG Real Estate Group, Frankfurt

Ulrich Höller has been Managing Partner of ABG Real Estate Group since January 2020. He is one of Germany’s best-known real estate executives and has been active in leading positions in the industry for over 28 years, most recently as Management Board Chairman at GEG German Estate Group AG. Höller holds several supervisory and advisory board mandates, including as a member of the board of the German real estate association ZIA.

www.abg-group.de

Founder of ingenhoven architects, Düsseldorf

One of the core competences of ingenhoven architects is the planning and implementation of high-rise buildings. ingenhoven architects was founded in 1985 by Christoph Ingenhoven and is one of the international pioneers of sustainable, ecological architecture. In accordance with the highest green building standards, the office develops and realizes projects of all sizes and typologies in nearly every region of the world. Several award-winning high-rise projects have been built in Singapore, Japan, and Australia. Since 1997, ingenhoven architects have overseen the planning of the underground Stuttgart Central Station as the core of the Stuttgart 21 traffic and urban development project. The headquarters of ingenhoven architects is located in Düsseldorf’s Media Harbour, with branches in St. Moritz, Sydney, and Singapore. Christoph Ingenhoven is a founding member of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) and the Federal Foundation for Building Culture (Bundesstiftung Baukultur).

www.ingenhovenarchitects.com

Managing Director of Hines, Munich

Christian Meister, Managing Director of Hines Germany, is responsible for investment management, project development and business development across all asset classes in southern Germany with a focus on Munich. In addition he is responsible for the Hines logictics platform in Germany. He also holds a lecture at the chair of Prof. Dr. Bone-Winkel at the University of Regensburg in Real Estate Finance and Development. Since 2018 Christian is holding the ULI Local Chair for Munich.

www.hines.com

Director of Urban Planning, Munich

In November 2018, the Munich City Council unanimously confirmed Prof. Dr. (Univ. Florenz) Elisabeth Merk as head of its Department of Urban Planning and Building Regulations for a further six years. Previously, she was in charge of urban development and planning in Halle | Saale. In 2009, Elisabeth Merk was appointed honorary professor at the Hochschule für Technik in Stuttgart. In 2020 she received an honorary professorship at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Since 2015 she has been president of the German Academy for Urban and Regional Planning (DASL).

www.muenchen.de

Founder of Kinzo, Berlin-München

They knew each other from the Berlin nightlife. Then in 2005, Karim El-Ishmawi, Martin Jacobs, and Chris Middleton founded Kinzo. Today the studio has projects around the world, working at the intersection of interior design and design. In 2020 they opened a second office in Munich. Their signature coolness goes well beyond their many award-winning designs. Their clients include adidas, Soundcloud and Zalando.

www.kinzo-berlin.de

Managing Director of Signa, Munich

Tobias Sauerbier has been Managing Director of SIGNA Real Estate Management Germany GmbH and a member of the Managing Board of SIGNA Prime Selection AG since March 2019. Together with Timo Herzberg, he is currently responsible for all of SIGNA’s real estate activities in Germany. The SIGNA Group is a privately held industrial holding company in the real estate and retail sectors with real estate assets of over 12 billion euros.

www.signa.at

Founder of Eviday, London

As a German architect he was trained to design highly efficient offices – but not to understand what occupants really need. Struck by the lack of know-how needed to create workplaces that really work for people, he began researching employee experiences @UCL and used his findings to advise corporates all over Europe as a workplace consultant and change manager.
This gave him valuable industry insights and formed the foundation of Eviday.
Eviday gives corporate managers everything they need to know to get the best out of their people.
Eviday is the world’s first holistic wellbeing & productivity platform, using real-time data and actionable insights to turn individual employee experiences into company-wide productivity, wherever employees may be.

www.eviday.ai

Professor for Experimental Space, Hochschule Coburg

Prof. Mark Nicholas Phillips has been Professor for Experimental Space in the Interior Architecture course of the Design Department at Coburg University of Applied Sciences since 2012. He has more than 20 years of practical and academic experience in the field of interior architecture, including the design and implementation of office projects with various partners and clients. His current areas of teaching and research are materials and aesthetics, design, and practical projects in the Interior Design Bachelors programme and in the Master Design programme focusing on New Work/New Office. Currently he is researching “working worlds of the future” including their historical foundations. Since 2020, he has collaborated with Kinzo Projekte on research related to New Work.

www.mark-phillips.de