Miami-based Germane Barnes’ award-winning research and design practice investigates the connection between architecture and identity, examining architecture’s social and political agency through historical research and design speculation, with particular focus on the relationship between the built environment and Black domesticity. In addition to his eponymous practice, Barnes is currently an Assistant Professor and the Director of The Community Housing & Identity Lab (CHIL) at the University of Miami School of Architecture, a testing ground for the physical and theoretical investigations of architecture’s social and political resiliency.
Barnes’ work has been presented and supported by several illustrious institutions and organizations, including The Museum of Modern Art NY, San Francisco MoMA, LACMA, Chicago Architecture Biennial, MAS Context, The Graham Foundation, Miami Design District, Design Miami/, and The National Museum of African American History. He is winner of the 2021 Rome Prize in Architecture, the 2021 Harvard Wheelwright Prize, the 2021 Architectural League Prize, and an inaugural grant from Theaster Gates and Prada’s Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab.
Maurizio Montalti is an Italian-born, Amsterdam-based designer, researcher, educator and entrepreneur. Working at the intersection of design and biotech, he is a recognized pioneer in material culture discourse and development, with a specialty in natural biomaterials. He holds an M.A. in Conceptual Design in Context from Design Academy Eindhoven and an M.A. in Engineering and Industrial Management from The University of Bologna.
In addition to serving as dieDAS’s inaugural artistic director 2020-2022, Montalti heads up the multidisciplinary practice Officina Corpuscoli and is also Cofounder, Designer, and R&D Director of Mogu, a design-innovation company dedicated to high-performance biomaterials and finished products deriving from fungi. His work has been exhibited at renowned institutions such as the MoMA (New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Design Museum (London), and MAXXI (Rome), among others.
"Today, it is evermore important to realise about the pivotal role of the Design and Creative practices as catalysts for triggering effective change, at both societal and eco-systemic levels. Conscious of such urgencies, the role of organisations such as dieDAS is absolutely key. Functioning as a thoroughly inclusive platform, supporting talented creatives in investigating complex contemporary subjects, while fostering deep critical discussions, positive collisions, and unorthodox manifestation by means of unique collective learning experiences, dieDAS paves the way to new models, challenging the status quo through the introduction of effective paradigm shifts, as driven by intuition, empathy, creativity, and competence."
MexicoCity-based architect Rozana Montiel is founder and director of Rozana Montiel Architecture Studio (REA), a studio known for its socially conscious and community-oriented approach. Montiel is recognized for her sustainable development and inventive solutions for enhancing the public realm. REA specializes in architectural design, artistic re-conceptualizations of space, and the public domain. It works on a wide variety of projects in different scales ranging from the city to the book, the artifact, and other micro-objects. Areas of research include living spaces, urban uses of public space, and the resignification of building materials with an emphasis on place-making, livability, and temporary use. The team believes that beauty is a social right, and therefore seeks to generate quality spaces with multiple temporal narratives.
Montiel has taught architecture in several universities and is a member of the EditorialBoard of the Architectural Magazine Arquine. She is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Emerging Voices Award from The ArchitecturalLeague of New York in 2016, the Moira Gemmill Award by The Architecture Review in London in 2017, the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture from the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine in 2019, and the ARVHA International Prize for Women Architects in 2022, among others.