New Dencities

Mirko’s cross-disciplinary design agenda has been professionally initiated with NYXO, the studio co-founded with his brother Michele and continues with his activity as a founding professor at the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation. He received his Master's degree in architecture at Greg Lynn’s masterclass, at the University of Applied Arts, Institute of Architecture in Vienna. His work has been exhibited internationally in several events including the ITNOA, Albertina Passage in Vienna, Beyond Media in Florence, at the 12th Venice Biennale of Architecture, and the 2010 Beijing Biennale. His design agenda consists in the understanding and management of intricate transdisciplinary scenarios, from material systems to production processes. He is interested in using digital computational tools to set up apparatuses of simulation that can offer new aesthetic languages and capable to re-territorialize the products: products as tools to discover horizons of renewed knowledge. His research interest is about the impact of the transformation of the artifacts from 'prosthesis' to 'bodies', from objects that are extensions of the human body to other 'bodies' that are able to interact with it. NYXO is an architecture and product design practice characterized by a heterogeneous production for companies with an international reputation. The project typologies range from experimental Limited Editions to serial productions.

Jie Zhang is an award-winning architect and researcher. She has built Accra's first youth entrepreneurship awareness program, transferred low-tech aerial mapping technologies to informal settlements in Ahmedabad and initiated Opt, a design think tank focused on the future, where she proposed radical concepts such as water-reserving homes, biological facades, and workplaces in the age of UAVs. Zhang obtained a Master of Architecture from MIT as the recipient of the annual Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, with Distinction, from Yale University. Zhang currently leads the Shanghai studio of the world-renowned design firm Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, Inc. as General Manager.

Sayjel is a Founding Assistant Professor at the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (DIDI) and the CTO of Digital Blue Foam (DBF), a software startup developing solutions for Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) to accelerate the world’s transition to carbon-neutral cities. A MIT-trained architect, Patel's professional and academic work focuses on the convergence of emerging digital media, and has recently exhibited work at the Shenzhen Biennale, Dubai Design Week, and the Red Dot Design Museum.

Originally from French Canada, Ms Hébert has a Bachelor and Master of Architecture degree from McGill University. In the USA, she worked for an innovation-lead real estate and design studio based in Cambridge. There, she also contributed to its sister company Mapdwell, another MIT startup that built the world’s leading platform for solar rooftop mapping. Prior to Boston, Naomi worked at SOM in New York, and Kengo Kuma in Paris. Together with her three partners, Dennis Frenchman, Kun Qian, and Marwan Aboudib, Ms Hébert cofounded Tekuma Frenchman, an award-winning urban design and innovation firm. Based in the Netherlands, Ms Hébert oversees the masterplan and design of cities and neighbourhoods across the globe. More recently she lead a proposal for three artificial islands to the South of Penang, Malaysia, worked on planning competitions in China and has provided strategic consulting for regions in the Middle East.