Contributor

Marva Griffin was born in Venezuela, and Milan became her city of adoption when, in the seventies, she started to work in the field of design and furnishing.

She began her career as PR communication at what was then the C&B Italia company (now B&B Italia), working with Piero Ambrogio Busnelli, owner and chairman of the company.

She became the correspondent/representative in Italy for a number of Conde Nast Publications: French Maison & Jardin, Vogue Decoration, American House & Garden and American Vogue. 

Born in Milan, he worked as an educator with minors in group homes and schools for over 10 years. He then attended the Mi-Master’s course in Editorial Illustration and decided to completely devote himself to illustration. He started working with the Purple Rain Illustrators agency, which found him his first jobs overseas. He soon received several commissions from the United States, including from Google, The New Yorker, The New York Times, GQ, The Wall Street Journal, Airbnb, Penguin, Bloomberg Businessweek, Scientific American, National Public Radio, Variety.

An interior designer who studied at the Politecnico di Milano and the Rhode Island School of Design, she first joined the editorial staff of Domus in 2011 and has since worked under six Editors-in-Chief on the magazine and three on the website. After working as a freelance designer in Ghent, Belgium, and for Louis Vuitton's e-commerce concern in Brussels, she returned to Italy in 2016 to work as web editor on the Domus website (domusweb.it), for which she now oversees content.

Cyrill Gutsch is an award-winning designer and brand/product developer.

In 1998 he created a method called Cross Intelligence, which brings a culture of collaboration to major organizations. In 2012 he decided to focus on a new client vital to us all: the oceans. He founded Parley for the Oceans as a collaboration network for creators, thinkers and leaders to raise awareness for the beauty and fragility of the oceans and to develop and implement strategies that can end their destruction.

Art historian, for several years Giulia Guzzini has concentrated her study interests on contemporary design. She grew up in Milan in the editorial office of the historic architecture magazine Domus, alongside the greatest international architects. She has been a lecturer in various institutions, including the Politecnico di Milano and Domus Academy. Today she deals with research and consultancy for various companies in the design world and works as a journalist for the magazines Marie Claire Maison, Elle Décor and Interni.

Sebastian Herkner (born 1981) studied Product Design at HfG Offenbach University of Art and Design. During his studies he began to focus on designing objects and furniture, honing his keen sense for materials, colors and textures. For a short while he then worked for Stella McCartney in London.

Lilli Hollein is the newly appointed general director of the MAK-Museum of Applied Arts Vienna. She was until May 2021 director and one of three co-founders of VIENNA DESIGN WEEK, Austria's largest design festival. She completed her industrial design studies at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

Carsten Höller applies his training as a scientist to his work as an artist, concentrating particularly on the nature of human relationships.

Bjarke Ingels is an architect and founder of the Bjarke Ingels Group – BIG – a design consultancy practicing within the fields of Landscape, Engineering, Architecture, and Product Design. 

Over two decades Bjarke and BIG have been contributing to the built environment with a socially, economically, and ecologically sustainable approach to architecture and urbanism under the philosophy of Hedonistic Sustainability – the idea that sustainable buildings and cities not only are good for the environment – but increase the quality of life for the people inhabiting them.

Established in 2005, Random International is a post digital art group exploring the impact of technological development on the human condition. Best known for their large-scale interactive installations, the group works across an array of media including sculpture, light, kinetics, video, print, and sound. Led by founders Hannes Koch (b.1975, Germany) and Florian Ortkrass (b.1975, Germany), the group has a studio in London and comprises a global team of complementary talent. Experimental by nature, Random International’s practice is fuelled by research and scientific discovery.

Co-Founder and Director, Superflux & Professor, Design Investigations, Angewandte, Vienna.

A designer, filmmaker, futurist and educator, Anab Jain grew up in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, within the entangled postcolonial landscapes of a fast-growing nation. Through a series of planned and unplanned circumstances, she has made London her home. Although the idea of a ‘home’ remains as expansive as our hearts and minds.

Born in Sofia in 1978. Graduated from the National School of Italian Language and Culture in Sofia, she studied Economics and Commerce in Milan, where she worked in the fashion photography sector, dealing with publishing and advertising campaigns.

She has always drawn.

The strong focus on marketing and product strategy, as well as image, persisted over the next twenty years of tangible expressions, on the border between art and design.

Nasir Kassamali, is a pivotal figure in the contemporary design landscape co-founder of Luminaire, is renowned for revolutionizing the design and home furnishing industry in the US. After emigrating from Kenya, he and his wife, Nargis, opened Luminaire in Miami in 1974, initially focusing on lighting but soon expanding to offer a wide range of design products. Luminaire grew to become a beacon of contemporary design, known for its curated exhibitions, educational programming, and efforts to make design accessible to a broader audience.

The internationally acclaimed architect Francis Kéré garnered critical praise from the beginning of his architectural practice when awarded the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture (2004) for his first ever building - a primary school he designed, raised the funds for and realised in collaboration with the residents of his native Gando, Burkina Faso. In 2022, he became the first African architect to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize.