SOM Foundation Announces Jury for the 2022 European Research Prize

Ivan Blasi is an architecture curator, moderator, teacher, and publisher. He is the director of Prizes and Programmes at the Mies van der Rohe Foundation in Barcelona where he is in charge of the organization of the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Awards, and of the Interventions program in the Barcelona Pavilion. He teaches at the Barcelona Architecture Centre and has been invited to KU Leuven, Delft University of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University, and University of Montevideo, among others. Aside from regularly contributing to international architecture events, he has led the publication of about twenty books on contemporary architecture and culture published by Fundació Mies van der Rohe, and the curatorship of exhibitions that have been presented at the Venice Biennale, German Architecture Museum, Architekturzentrum Wien, Tbilisi Architecture Biennial, and Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine in Paris, among others. He has organized several interventions at the Barcelona Pavilion, including works by artists such as SANAA, Ai Weiwei, Antoni Muntadas, Luftwerk + Iker Gil, Andrés Jaque, Luis Martínez Santa-María, Laura Martínez de Guereñu, Sabine Marcelis, and Anna and Eugeni Bach.

Iker Gil (Cochair) has been the executive director of the SOM Foundation since 2019. He is the founder of MAS Studio and editor in chief of the nonprofit MAS Context. Gil has edited or coedited several books, including Radical Logic: On the Work of Ensamble Studio and Shanghai Transforming. He has curated multiple exhibitions, including Nocturnal Landscapes, Poured Architecture: Sergio Prego on Miguel Fisac, and BOLD: Alternative Scenarios for Chicago, part of the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial. He was cocurator of Exhibit Columbus 2020–2021 and associate curator of the US Pavilion for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. He has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Mina Hasman leads Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s sustainability and well-being daily operations and long-term vision for achieving excellence in practice. She has experience in a wide variety of projects in Europe, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, and Asia, bringing a greater understanding of the implications for sustainable and equitable design in different climatic, social, and regulatory contexts. As a recognized expert in her field, Hasman has been elected to and is actively involved in the UK Green Building Council Board of Trustees, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Practice & Policy Committee, Council on Academic Accreditation Chair of Practice, London Energy Transformation Initiative (LETI) Steering Committee, United Nations Environment Programme/Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction’s Conference of the Parties (COP) Task Force, Construction Industry Council Climate Change Committee, World Green Building Council Advancing Net Zero Steering Committee, Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Intelligent Buildings Vice Chair, and International Well Building Institute’s Health Equity Advisory Group. Hasman regularly contributes to the wider climate change, sustainability, and well-being debate in her role as tutor at various academic institutions, as well as regular speaking appearances at many international events.

Aseem Inam is professor and chair in Urban Design at Cardiff University and director of TRULAB: Laboratory for Designing Urban Transformation, a pioneering research-based practice. He is an urbanist and activist-scholar-practitioner who is designing urban transformation at the exciting intersection of urban theory and design practice. Inam has published this in-depth research in two books, Designing Urban Transformation (Routledge, 2014) and Planning for the Unplanned: Recovering from Crises in Megacities (Routledge, 2005). His professional work focuses on developing new and more effective modes of urban practice, in which design is critical, interdisciplinary, and engaged.

Kent Jackson (Cochair) is a design partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s London office. Jackson’s creative approach to design responds to individual context and enables the integration of the natural and built environment. He is a leading advocate of the firm’s pledge to meet the AIA 2030 Commitment toward a carbon-neutral built environment. He serves on the UK Advisory Board for the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and is also a member of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects and the British Council of Offices.

Olga Subirós is an architect and curator of exhibition projects that bring new approaches and integrate the transformations of the digital age and ecosocial crises. Her most recent curatorial project and installation architecture AIR/ARIA/AIRE, on air pollution impact and the need to create cartographic evidence to help change the urban model for healthy and just cities, was presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2021. Subirós cocurated and designed the exhibition Big Bang Data on the datafication of the world, which was presented at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) and at several international venues such as the MIT Museum and Arts Science Museum in Singapore. Subirós has developed more than fifty exhibition projects for various institutions such as the CCCB, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Fundación Telefónica, Somerset House, Artlab in Lausanne, and DOX Prague Centre for Contemporary Art, among others. Subirós is also a lecturer in Design and Data at the Elisava Barcelona School of Design and Engineering and a doctoral candidate at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.