Future of Design

Chief designer and professor Timothy Jacob Jensen was born in 1962 to an American mother from New York and a Danish Father from Copenhagen. From the age of four, he grew up in the rural surroundings of Hejlskov on the shores of the Limfjord in Jutland Denmark. From a very young age, Timothy was regarded as a prodigy by many. Having had a rebellious educational upbringing and spending only 7.5 years in school, Timothy joined his father Jacob Jensen’s design studio in 1978 and spent the next six years working there. Timothy joined Bang & Olufsen’s chief designers, Jacob Jensen and David Lewis, at the age of 17, and at 19 he had designed his first car, named Logicar. At 24, his first design was included in the design collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York. At 28, he took over the responsibility of Jacob Jensen Design from his father. He became chief designer for Gaggenau when he was 30. At 48, he became professor at Fudan University in Shanghai and at 55, he was named Designer of Year in China. Today, Chief designer and professor Timothy Jacob Jensen is working out of his legendary Danish studio together with a team of creative associates from all over the world.

Dr. Sharon Egretta Sutton, FAIA is distinguished visiting professor at Parsons School of Design and has also served on the faculties of Columbia University, Pratt Institute, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Michigan, and the University of Washington. The twelfth African American woman in the United States to be licensed to practice architecture, the first to be promoted to full professor of architecture, and the second to be elected a fellow in the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Dr. Sutton is a distinguished professor of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, and served as president of the National Architectural Accrediting Board. She received the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award from the American Institute of Architects, the Medal of Honor from both the New York and Seattle chapters of that organization, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame. Her latest book, When Ivory Towers Were Black (Fordham University Press, 2017), describes the nation's boldest recruitment of minority architecture and planning students during the Civil Rights Movement. An upcoming book, A Pedagogy of Hope (Fordham University Press, 2021), shows how low-income, youth of color can, and do, change a racist, consumerist society by transforming their surroundings.

Sean Griffiths is a practicing architect, artist and theorist. He is currently the principal of the practice Modern Architect and is professor of architecture at the University of Westminster in London. Sean was a founding partner of the of the practice FAT, whose many renowned projects include The Blue House in London and the BBC Drama Production Village in Cardiff. The practice won many awards and represented the UK at the Venice Biennale in 2014. Sean has taught in numerous schools of architecture and has been a visiting professor at Yale University and the ABK Stuttgart.