President of the Jury
Design as a second life. After studying Political
Sciences and Marketing Management, Alain Gilles went on to work in the
financial world. But one has to live his own life. So, thanks to the moral
support of his wife, he went back to studying Industrial design in France.
He opened his own studio in 2007 in order to pursue
his own dreams and develop his personal approach to product design, furniture
design, art direction and interior architecture. He has since started to
collaborate with several international editors such as as Ligne Roset (FR), Bonaldo (IT), Buzzispace
(BE), Varaschin (IT), Casamania (IT), Zee (BE), Green Mood (BE), XL Boom (BE), Verreum
(CZ), Evolution (FR), La Chance (FR), Vincent Sheppard (BE), Another Country
(UK), Miniforms (IT), …
Named “Designer of the year” in 2012 by the Biennale Interieur.
Click on "Learn More" to discover the multiple awards Alain Gilles has won so far in his career.
Victoria Milne is principal of 6¢
Design. Her firm improves the public sphere and other real estate through
design. Current projects include developing and directing the Times
Square Design Lab which commissions furniture from NYC designers for the Times
Square Alliance, and overseeing a small real estate portfolio. She is a
long-term member of the NYCxDesign executive committee which guides New York
City’s design week.
She has taught at Parson’s New School in the Master’s
program for Industrial Design.
Prior to 6¢ she served as Director of Public Art
and Design Initiatives at the NYC Department of Design and Construction where
her many design policy projects included starting the Built/NYC program to
commission custom furnishings for public capital projects.
She also ran an
award-winning communications and environmental design team for the City of New
York, and her office managed a $10 million portfolio of percent for art
commissions. She is also proud to be on the Baldwin Design Council,
contributing to new directions for this prestige hardware maker. Recent jurying
roles include the Breakout Grant from NYCxDesign and the Better Bin jury for a
new garbage can for the City of New York.
Her career started in design criticism as
editor in chief of Glass Magazine, and as New York contributing
editor at Dwell and Blueprint and journalist
for other publications. She has a Masters of Industrial Design from Pratt
Institute and her BA from Vassar College.
Ian Rose is a chartered landscape architect with more than 20 years
professional experience working in different roles on a wide range of
projects at all stages of the design and delivery process having studied
landscape design and plant science at Sheffield University in the UK.
He has 20 years experience in UAE and MENA region working on many
prestigious projects including Green Riyadh, Wadi Hanifah, Al Ain Zoo
and Abu Dhabi Corniche. Currently he works as senior associate
landscape architect with Cracknell.
Ian has extensive experience of
working with clients, contractors and suppliers in the UAE and has been
approved to undertake design and to supervise construction of landscape
projects on behalf of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Dubai Municipalities and has
extensive practical knowledge of both hard and soft landscape materials
suitable to the region.
Director of TL Mag
Curator of Spazio Nobile gallery
In 1999 by Lise Coirier founded ProMateria, a creative consultancy with a strong affinity for material
culture, craft-led innovation and human-centered design. The
intellectual, editorial approach and background in art and design
history and management position the agency in the field of supporting
and promoting up-and-coming talents on multiple fronts in different
regions but to also work closely and bringing together different
partners (designers, artists, makers, creative industries, design-led
institutions and brands) from all over the world.
Having founded and headed the biannual and online publication TL Mag (True Living of Art & Design) since late 2008 between Paris and Brussels, Lise Coirier also produces special editions and exhibitions in-line with both
commercial and cultural projects. She also initiates and curates
multiple European Union funded projects by the Culture and Creative
Europe Programmes – including Glass is Tomorrow (since 2011) and Human
Cities (since 2008) – but has also published and contributed to multiple
anthologies, monographs and catalogues – such as Design in Belgium,
Belgium is Design, Label.be, Imperfect by Design, Beauty – Singular /
Plural, Materialise.MGX, Xavier Lust and Anne Derasse. Interiors. With
decades of prior experience in cultural management, organisation of
engaging workshops, inspiring lectures, guided trend tours, publishing
and curation, Lise Coirier has mirrored the emergence of different scenes including the revival of the international design scene. Lise Coirier has therefore established a rich international network of journalists,
editors, curators, coordinators, graphic and web designers, working on
hands-on projects that further the mandate of contemporary creativity.
20-years of experience in publishing, organization, curation and
promotion has garnered this dynamic lady a powerful
understanding, vision, and arsenal of design-led tools and savoir-faire.
Julie Almau Gonzalez has enjoyed an education in contemporary history at the ULB. She is the General Director of the Atomium, flagship of the Belgian architectural heritage, iconic symbol of Brussels and art center, offering visitors contemporary installations dedicated to the digital arts.
Director of the Design Museum Brussels
Arnaud Bozzini [1979] has a PhD in Contemporary History. After working as Cultural Advisor for the City Council of Brussels, then as Senior Researcher at the Brussels Archives [Public History dpt.], Arnaud Bozzini joined the Atomium team in 2009 as Director of Exhibitions, to set up and develop an ambitious and creative program of exhibitions, with a new special focus on design, architecture and contemporary arts. The success and dynamics of the art center in the Atomium has led to the launching of a brand new extension of the Atomium, the Design Museum Brussels. Opened in December 2015, this museum is dedicated to design and its history.
Founder and co-Director of URBASTYLE
URBASTYLE is a long family story. It is Etienne Laroy, who first made
his carreer in concrete industry then founded in 1985 URBADAL in Aalter,
near Gent. The company was manufacturing at that times slabs,
colombariums and street furniture with washed stones.
His two sons Jan & Bart joined him in the first part of the nineties to develop the company.
In 2001, they create URBASTYLE and in 2003, move to Tournai on a brand
new site following all new requirements, strategically located at the
crossing of main highways Lille-Brussels and Mons-Kortrijk-Bruges, only a
few hundred meters from the Belgian-French border. The activity is
developing with prefab structural elements for buildings: facade
elements, balconies, stairs, ...
URBASTYLE produces following CE norms. More recently, URBASTYLE evolved,
used its know-how and competences to develop a quality street furniture
with high perceived value and added value. The company made several
innovations and parts pushing further the limits of concrete on the
quality aspects, as well as on functions and uses.
In 2012, URBASTYLE realizes with 3POD program, a strategic design study
on its activity in the objective to develop its quality, performance,
reinforce its skills, develop tis future, communication, recognition,
reputation.
Since then, it has evolved to be the world known company we know today, strengthening partnerships all around the world in concrete furniture production.
Lucile Soufflet was born in 1975 and studied industriel design at La
Cambre in Brussels. Her research is focussed on individuals,
relationships, and the playful side of things. Part of her activity is
devoted to public spaces with projects such as Projet 105 (artistic
intervention in social housing) and furniture like circular benches, my
place or soft bench, but she also works on everyday domestic objects. Of
an attentive observation of the social behavior and the material
elements of the daily environment, she directs her work in a very
personal way.