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Jury Board

13 jury members are judging the submitted projects. All winners will be presented at the prize giving event in May, 2022.


Guillermo Reynés is the chairman of the Baumit LifeChallenge in Valencia awarding the most beautiful facades of Europe.

Guillermo Reynés Vázquez-Rovira

Spain, Chairman

Guillermo Reynés is the architect director and founder of GRAS-Reynés Arquitectos, a young firm with great projection in the field of architecture and urban design.
He graduated in architecture from the University of Navarra, and later began his professional career collaborating in several internationally renowned architecture studios, such as the Carlos Ferrater studio in Barcelona and the Dutch MVRDV studio in Rotterdam.
GRAS-REYNÉS ARQUITECTOS develops its activity mainly in Spain, although with a growing international presence. Its work covers different fields of architecture, from the construction of housing to the creation of multi-family blocks, through hotels, office buildings or urban design.
In 2008 GRAS won the international competition for the new Ecocity in Montecorvo (Logroño, Spain). A highlight for GRAS architects that gave international attention to the firm. In 2016, the studio was invited to participate in the "Time, Space, Existence" exhibition at the 15th Venice Biennale of Architecture. Recently, in 2018, Guillermo was awarded with the 40 UNDER 40 Europe Design Award, being considered as one of the 40 best emerging architects in Europe.
Another important aspect in the professional development of Guillermo Reynés is his career as a lecturer at numerous institutions such as the CEU University of Valencia, the IAAC (Institute of Advanced Architecture of Barcelona) and the Architecture League in New York, among others.

Dimitar Ahryanov is a jury member of the Baumit LifeChallenge in Valencia awarding the most beautiful facades of Europe.

Dimitar Ahryanov

Bulgaria

Architect Dimitar Georgiev Ahryanov was born in 1981 and grew up in Plovdiv. He graduated the Academic Kiril Popov Exemplary Mathematics High School in Plovdiv in 2000. Mr. Ahryanov earned his Master’s Degree in Architecture from the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy of Sofia in 2006. 
He has been practicing since 2006, accumulating considerable experience in the field of public, residential and industrial architecture.
He worked at Plovdiv Municipality as Chief Architect for the Southern District of the city of Plovdiv between 2011 and 2013. Between 2014 and 2019, he worked at Karlovo Municipality as the Chief Architect for the town of Karlovo. Since 2019, he has been serving as Chief Architect for the city of Plovdiv. In 2020, Mr Ahryanov completed a three-year course of studies on the Preservation of Cultural Heritage offered by Ecole de Chaillot in France. He is married and has two children.

Michał Baryżewski is a jury member of the Baumit LifeChallenge awarding the most beautiful facades of Europe.

Michał Baryżewski

Poland

Michał Baryżewski is a Fulbright Fellow in the USA at California State University in Long Beach, USA, with many years of architectural practice in American architectural offices such as Killingsworth Brady Associates in Long Beach, John Wolcott Associates in Culver City, California. Co-founder and co-owner of the Arch-Deco architectural office in Gdynia in 1990, where designs of architectural realizations repeatedly awarded and published in Poland and abroad were created. Member of SARP (Association of Polish Architects) and ZPAP (Association of Polish Artists and Designers). For several years he worked at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. Polish squash champion in the Squash Masters Open in 2004 (category over 50). Laureate of many prestigious awards:
 
2013 - Honorary SARP Award for lifetime achievement
2007 - Award of the Minister of Infrastructure for the completed project of the headquarters of Group Lotos SA in Gdańsk, Poland
2005 - Award of the Minister of Infrastructure for the completed project of an apartment complex in Jurata Poland
2002 - European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award) 
2002 - participation in the Polish exhibition during UIA Union internationale des architectes
2000 - nomination to European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award)
2000 - Award of the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction for an apartment building in Jurata, Poland
 

Richard Černý is jury member of the Baumit LifeChallenge awarding the most beautiful facades of Europe.

Richard Černý 

Czech Republic

Ing. arch. Richard Černý (born 1974). 1992 – 1999 Studies at VUT (College of Technology) Brno – College of Architecture, 1999 – 2000 LOHAN ASSOCIATES (CHICAGO,USA).

Competitions, honorary prizes: 
1997 Prague Castle Pheasantry, 1997 Scandinavian Centre in Prague, 2002 Reconstruction of the Lower Square in Opava and Masaryk Square in Opava, 2004 New passenger railroad station in Brno, 2008 PLAZA Liberec shopping centre.

Major realizations:
2006 CENTRUM CHODOV - shopping centre in Prague, 2007 Residential complex PANORAMA in Liberec, 2008 FORUM Liberec, 2012 Residence LIBEREC, 2016 Kralovka mountain hotel in Janov nad Nisou, 2018 Masarykova residence in Liberec.

Samuel Delmas is a jury member of the Baumit LifeChallenge awarding the most beautiful facades of Europe.

Samuel Delmas 

France

Born in Aurillac, France, in 1977, Samuel Delmas studied Architecture at the ENSA Montpellier and at the University of Quebec (Canada). After his graduation in 2001, he settled down in Paris where he worked as a project manager in several renowned French architectural agencies. He set up his own agency in 2003, at only 26 years of age, where currently 23 people are employed.
His work is regularly noticed and exposed, in France as well as internationally. Having won the nomination for the "40 Under 40" in "Europe’s Emerging Young Architects" 2012 competition, he went on to win the biggest French award “l’Équerre d’Argent” in 2016. He was also triple laureate of the “prix du public d’architecture contemporaine” in 2012. He was implicated in numerous parallel activities: teaching architecture at the ENSA Montpellier (2004/2010), an elected member of the “Ordre des Architectes Ile-de-France” (2007/2013) and vice-president at the “Maison de l’Architecture Ile-de-France” (2010/2013).
The aim of his work, in all of his projects, is to put forward feeling, sensitivity and generosity, through spaces and materiality.

Alexander Gutzmer is a jury member of the Baumit LifeChallenge awarding the most beautiful facades of Europe. (Foto: Ulrike Myrzik)

Alexander Gutzmer

Germany

Dr. Alexander Gutzmer is author and researcher with a focus on architecture and city planning. For ten years, he was editor-in-chief of German architecture magazine Baumeister. As editorial director of publishing house Callwey, he was also responsible for the company's other titles, including Topos, the International Review of Urban Design. Currently, Alexander is director of communication and marketing at real estate developer Euroboden.
Alexander is also professor for media and communication at Quadriga University, Berlin. In 2019, he was guest lecturer at Berlin’s Humboldt University, and from 2017 to 2018, guest professor at the Mexican business School Tecnológico de Monterrey. 
His most recent book "Grenze aller Grenzen" is investigating the cultural landscape at the border between Mexico and the US. He also published books on the relationship between brands and the city in times of digitalization, or on the architecture of football stadiums and airports.  

Photo: Mateja Jordovič Potočnik, Lenka Kavčič is a jury member of the Baumit LifeChallenge awarding the most beautiful facades of Europe.

Lenka Kavčič

Slovenia

Lenka Kavčič is an architect, mentor, lecturer and advocate of quality architecture. She specialises in innovative approaches to spatial interventions and advocates a higher dwelling culture.
She founded the aFRONT Institute, the organiser of Open House Slovenia (OHS). For the past ten years, OHS has been the biggest architectural festival in Slovenia, featuring the most important online guide to contemporary Slovenian architecture. OHS Festival is the recipient of the highest architectural award in the country – the Plečnik Medal.
Lenka Kavčič was also awarded the same prize for the Playful Architecture project of introducing architecture to children, and the gold medal of the BIO 16 – Biennial of Industrial Design.
Her mission is to achieve a higher level of spatial culture and architectural standards, as she firmly believes that space should be dedicated to people and that only through collaboration can we preserve and create better spaces for our future.

Verena Mörkl is a jury member of the Baumit LifeChallenge awarding the most beautiful facades of Europe.

Verena Mörkl

Austria

Verena Moerkl studied Architecture at the Tech. University of Vienna and the ETSA Barcelona. In 2003 she founded SUPERBLOCK together with Christoph Moerkl. In the same year they received the Schütte Lihotzky scholarship for their Study Kat. E (Co-housing in Gründerzeit). In 2011/2013 Verena has been adjunct lecturer at the Institute for Urban Planning at the Technical University of Vienna. She has served as a full member of the Architectural Advisory Council for Subsidized Housing of the Municipality of Vienna since 2016. Since 2012 SUPERBLOCK is one of the contractors of the “Gebietsbetreuung Stadterneuerung” (Urban renewal Office).
SUPERBLOCK is mainly working on subsidized housing projects and urban planning and won various design and urban planning competitions in Austria & Germany.

Sebastian Nagy is a jury member of the Baumit LifeChallenge awarding the most beautiful facades of Europe.

Sebastian Nagy

Slovakia

Sebastian Nagy was born in 1980, he comes from Nitra. He graduated in Architecture at the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava but his works are strongly influenced by his studies at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, and Berlage Institute in Rotterdam.
As of today, he has created few remarkable designs and implemented projects. He was the winner of international design competition Robustness Concrete Design Competition (Sweden). His implemented projects are, for instance: apartment house TRIANGOLO (Nitra), house OTIO (Drážovce), and Villa ATRIO (Bratislava). Sebastian Nagy was a laureate of prestigious Dušan Jurkovič Award for the design of residential house TRIANGOLO (2008), he was awarded CE.ZA.AR Public Award for the design of house OTIO (2011) and he was twice nominee for Mies van der Rohe award TRIANGOLO (2009), OTIO (2013)

Sergejs Ņikiforovs is a jury member of the Baumit LifeChallenge awarding the most beautiful facades of Europe.

Sergejs Ņikiforovs 

Latvia

Graduated Riga Technical University in 1979. From 1992 - co-founder and partner of Riga based company NAMS architects. As a head of a team has developed different kind of projects throughout Latvia, among them - renovation of the premises of the Bank of Latvia in Riga, 2002-2003, building of New Apostolic Church in Riga, 2000-2004, Jugla Retail Centre in Riga, Latvia, 2001-2002, Lettgallia Students Corporation House in Riga, 2001-2006, Residential housing area Bisumuiza in Riga, 2005-2019, Fire Station in Cesis, Latvia, 2011-2014, Free Waldorf School premises and sports facilities in Adazi, Latvia, 2008-2016 and others.
Successful participation in competitions - as a member of a creative team, among them - residential area in Liepaja, Latvia, 1985, renovation of the building of Latvian State Administration Authority in Riga, 1994, recreational area Lejastiezumi, Latvia, 1999, Mezaparks residential area in Riga, Latvia, 2006, observation tower on the top of Gaizins - highest peak of Latvia, 2012. He is Member of the Council of Latvian Architects Association.

Nevzat Sayın is a jury member of the Baumit LifeChallenge awarding the most beautiful facades of Europe.

Nevzat Sayın

Turkey

Nevzat Sayın was born in 1954 in Hatay. He was graduated from Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Architecture in 1978 from Ege University where he continued his master study on social housing. Until 1984, he continued his post-academic training by master-apprentice relationship and after 1986, he went on trips to increase his knowledge & manner. He has been continuing to practice architecture working with different offices since then.
He was nominated for and has received architectural awards both in Turkey and abroad. In 2004 Düşler Düşünceler İşler (Dreams, Thoughts, Works) and in 2015 A Book About A Building was published. In addition to his work at NSMH, he continues to teach in diverse architectural schools in Turkey. He is a founding member of and studio instructor in the MArch Program in Architectural Design at Bilgi University. Summer schools, conferences, juries, and workshops for architecture students constitute an important part of his involvement in architectural education. His works also include texts, interviews, exhibitions, and publications on architecture.

Ante Vrban is a jury member of the Baumit LifeChallenge awarding the most beautiful facades of Europe.

Ante Vrban

Croatia

Graduated in Zagreb at Faculty of Architecture, he started to work at age of 19. Today with over 300 developed luxury projects around the globe he has proven to be a highly consistent internationaly award winning architect. In 2020 he is the main architect of the croatian pavilion at Expo Dubai, along with several other luxury projects in the next two years that are booked in advance in his schedule.
His projects are known to have the „AV atmosphere“, reffering to the light and reflections connected with nature and the surroundings. Very much involved on global level to the natural alternative sources of energy, solar, wind... that he incorporates into his projects. His moto is always:“ we have to be one with nature and be aware of the climate changes on our planet“.

Adrian-Emilian Zerva is a jury member of the Baumit LifeChallenge awarding the most beautiful facades of Europe.

Adrian-Emilian Zerva

Romania

Architecture and Urban University “ION MINCU”, Bucharest, Master architectures and town planning license and diploma degree.
 
Professional experience :
-       2016 Member of the jury –Bienale of Architecture  - UAR – Residential
-       2018 Curator of Bienale of Architecture UAR – Residential
-       2019 Member of Jury Annual Competition Architecture OAR Bucharest
-       2019 Member of the Jury for Expomondial Dubai 2020 – Romanian Participation
-       Co-author to over 50 projects achieved, among which building for offices, trade, one–family houses
-       Member of UAR Delegation in a big URBAN CENTERS REABILITATION in Helsinki, Finland, Greece and Netherlands.