People

Evelyne Au-Navioz is a multi-disciplinary designer and creative thinker. She is a graduate of Design Art at Concordia University and an alumnus of the Institute without Boundaries and has a keen interest in graphic and environmental design, architecture, and urban design. Evelyne is also heavily involved in community work and is an environmental workshop leader, principal designer and mentor at UforChange, a project engaging at-risk youth aged 16-29 in the downtown-east area of Toronto. 

Born in Milan, living and working in Brussels since 20 years, Giovanna Massoni is an Italian freelance art and design journalist and independent design consultant. She regularly collaborates with Belgian and international organisations, aiming at promoting and communicating emerging design scenarios with a social and ethical content.

Kar Yan is a biologist and multi-disciplinary designer based in Toronto, Canada. She studied at the University of British Columbia with focuses in genetics, health sciences, and ecology. Kar Yan went onto complete a post-graduate study at the Institute without Boundaries that explored sustainable design and culture through a holistic, systems approach. Currently, she is a designer and researcher at Bruce Mau Design. At Bruce Mau Design she finds passion and purpose in working on challenging and meaningful projects in the areas of visioning and strategy, communication, environmental and web design.

Nathalie Crutzen holds a PhD from HEC - Management School of the University of Liege (Belgium). The global aim of her PhD dissertation was a better understanding of strategic and performance management in small firms. More concretely, her PhD dissertation aimed at identifying several typical failure patterns amongst small businesses. Since October 2009, she is Assistant Professor in Strategy, Sustainability and Performance Management at HEC - Management School of the University of Liege and she is responsible for Accenture Chair in Sustainable Strategy. Her main current research interests are (sustainable) strategic and performance management, creativity/innovation and small businesses.

Dimitri Papatheodorou is an architect, painter and musician. He teaches at both the Institute Without Boundaries at George Brown College, and Ryerson University in Toronto, and is represented by several galleries across Canada. In 2010 his book titled: "Painting, Architecture & Song" was published by the Institute Without Boundaries, exploring the aesthetic connections between all three creative practices.

Luigi Ferrara is a Registered Architect, a member of the Ontario Association of Architects and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. He is the Director of the School of Design at George Brown College, and oversees the Institute without Boundaries. Luigi previously served as a principal of Ferrara Contreras Architects Inc., President and CEO of DXNet Inc., a network for design and innovation that redefined the practice of design using digital media and advanced computing and telecommunication platforms, Vice-President of the Design Exchange and in various architectural consulting roles at Stirling, Wilford Associates, Peter Turner Architects, Paul Reuber Architect and Russocki Zawadzki Architects. In addition to his roles as architect, designer, entrepreneur and educator, Luigi has curated exhibitions and authored books and catalogues for the University of Toronto, the Joseph D. Carrier Gallery, the Ontario Heritage Foundation, the Triennale of Milan, the Architectural Literacy Forum and the Design Exchange. Most recently he has written a second volume in the Canada Innovates series focusing on sustainable building design following on the first volume that covered digital creativity in Canada. In his role at Dxnet, Luigi founded Digifest, a festival for new media.

Leen Van Aken is Born in Dendermonde, Belgium in 1964. She studied Architecture in Gent and worked in Cagliari, Sardinië with ir. Architect Romano Antico. Since 1992 she was an independent architect in Gent and Londerzeel. In 1994-2000 she was a teacher ‘history of architecture’ in University College Vlissingen, Holland. From 1998-2002 she was a teacher building constructions and universal design at University College Lessius Mechelen, department Interior and design. Since 2004 she is researcher on Ecodesign and founder of www.ecodesign.be. She teaches sustainable design universal design at University College Lessius Mechelen and guides workshops in applying ecotools for researchgroup DUOn at Lessius University College.

Design engineer Veroniek Hermans enjoys to think about the true essence of a concept. She acknowledges the importance of a clear idea and of the balance between rational and emotional thinking. Veroniek believes that products should be designed to be really pleasant and loving. She started her career as product designer for The Radiator Factory Jaga (www.jaga.be). In the DesignAtelier (www.designatelier.be) she coaches adults in the product development process and in vision creation. With Holistic Architecture 50 I 5 (www.holisticarch.com) she created MaterialSource (www.materialsource.com). This is a communication tool that guides users into conscious sustainable choices of everyday materials and products. As a co-founder of MaterialSource she supports users, scientists and companies in sustainable business development.

Marc Maurer (1969) was born in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, but grew up in Germany. After having passed the secondary school ‘Carl-Duisberg-Gymnasium’ in Leverkusen he studied architecture at the Eindhoven University
of Technology. In 1995 he received a master of science degree in architecture and urbanism. His graduation work was nominated for the National Archiprix 1996 (best student plans). Together with Nicole Lemmens he founded Maurer United in 1998. Maurer United is known for investigating and redefining the borders of the architecture design-field, resulting in urbanism, architecture, design and media projects on various scales. Since 1998 Marc Maurer and Nicole Maurer have received several awards and nominations for their cooperative work. They have tutored at different academies and universities in the Netherlands. Their works – architecture, public spaces, interior design and art installations – have been realised all around the world, including the Netherlands, Germany, USA, and China. Maurer United is based at the central railway station building in Maastricht. The office counts architectural, graphic and industrial designers, as well as experienced building project managers and technical drawers.

Tim Prins was born in Sittard, Limburg, the Netherlands in 1978. He studied at the TUDelft and at Sciarc, Los Angeles. In 2004 he received his MSc. in architecture, urbanism and building technology at the TUDelft. After working in Berlin and Oslo, he founded the office P-EN-M together with Nora Müller in 2008. The office operates within a wide field of spatial, strategical and aesthetic challenges. Experience has been gathered in refurbishment, offices, residential projects, floating pools and casino islands. In addition to practical work, P-EN-M is engaged in research and teaching.

A ‘visual storyteller,’ artist and information designer, Arlene Birt is fascinated by the idea that we are endlessly tied to the world through the objects that we consume. Arlene’s work frames every-day actions within the con text of the big picture in order to communicate consumers' roles in social and ecological sustainability. Her work on sustainability –which rides the line between art and education– has been featured in Creative Review (UK), U.S. News and World Report, BusinessWeek.com, worldchanging.com, SEED Magazine, and at the Barcelona Design Museum. Arlene has received a Fulbright fellowship, a 2010 Art(ists) on the Verge fellowship, several art grants and was a finalist for the prestigious 2010 Bush Fellowship. She holds a masters from Design Academy Eindhoven (NL) and now lives in Antwerp. She teaches design techniques to communicate sustainability and Life-Cycle Analysis (LCA) at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (online: US), researches info design for sustainability and works with companies to improve their sustainability communication. www.backgroundstories.com

For more than seven years, Bernd Draser is working as a lecturer of Philosophy at ecosign/Akademie für Gestaltung in Cologne, Germany. The ecosign academy offers unique and innovative full-time courses in sustainable design since 1994, with currently about 250 students enrolled. For ecosign, Bernd is involved in several projects dealing with sustainable design. As a philosopher and literature scholar with a focus on cultural studies, Bernd is reading classical texts of the philosophical tradition from Plato to Foucault with his students, but also gives lectures on quaint subjects such as „Hitchcock and the Analytical Look“, „Islam and Europe“, „Homer‘s Iliad“, „Rituals and Media“, „Wild Women“, „James Bond and Theseus“, and „The Ends of the World in the Bible and the Movies“. A peculiar question for Bernd is how to think sustainability in a context of cultural history.

Natascha Rommens graduated in 2001 as Master of Linguistics and Literature at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (BE). She added a master in international relations and politics to broaden her interest in cultural diversity. After gaining experience in sales, marketing and marketing communications in an international company, she decided to bring her experience back to the field that lies in her interest: creative economy. In 2007 she conducted a large scale survey on the need for a platform that links cross border projects to design expertise. She founded REcentre in 2008, bringing together sustainability, entrepreneurship and design. Currently she’s director of REcentre where she conducts, together with a multidisciplinary team of 6 persons, various projects with the aim to promote sustainability.