Jury
Tom Dixon
Designer, Founder, TOM DIXON
Tom Dixon is a restless innovator who rose to prominence in the mid-1980s as a maverick, untrained designer with a line in welded salvage furniture. While working with the Italian giant Cappellini he designed the widely acclaimed ‘S’ Chair.
In the late 90s Tom became Creative Director at Habitat and rejuvenated the brand while maintaining Terence Conran’s vision of enriching everyday life through simple, modern design. In 2001, Tom was awarded an OBE by Her Majesty the Queen for his services to British design. In 2014 he was awarded ‘Designer of The Year’ at Maison & Objet, Paris. In 2019, he received a silver medal for Best Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and in the same year, was awarded the prestigious London Design Medal at the British Land Celebration of Design Awards. Tom is one of the industry’s most feted British designers and is internationally heralded as a significantly original talent.
Melkan Gürsel
AIA (Int'l. Assoc.) Founding Partner, TABANLIOGLU ARCHITECTS
Melkan Gürsel studied architecture at Istanbul Technical University. After graduating in 1993, she went to UPC, Barcelona for her Master’s degree in Architecture. She joined Tabanlioglu Architects as partner, in 1995 which today is one of Eurasia’s most recognized, award-winning architectural practices; currently engaged in major assignments worldwide with the contribution of approximately 150 architects in TA_offices Istanbul, NYC, Dubai, and Doha.
Along with several prize-winning projects, Melkan has been selected as one of the “Europe 40 under 40” for 2008 and in 2015 “Fifty under Fifty: Innovators of the 21st Century”.
Practicing architecture in a city with 10.000-year urban culture, Melkan’s projects reflect the time they belong and the place they are located, aiming to develop innovative, yet efficient and economically viable design alternatives for residential buildings, offices, industrial facilities, shopping malls, and transformation projects considering the uniqueness of the “place” and the individuality of “requirements”.
Defne Koz
Product Designer, Founding Partner, KOZ SUSANI DESIGN
Defne Koz is co-founder, partner of Koz Susani Design, an award winner, innovative studio based in Chicago, with Marco Susani, where she designs iconic, emotionally engaging, innovative award winning products and experiences.
Their designs span from domestic objects to high-tech devices, from hi-touch materials to interaction design, from luxury crafts to mass-manufactured products, always focusing on hi-quality design that embraces vision and innovation while preserving human, emotional qualities.
Working along the edges of a triangle that consists of Turkey, Italy and the US, Koz synthesizes her Turkish aesthetic values with Italian design philosophy where she studied design.
Since she co-founded Koz Susani Design, Koz has been awarded many prestigious design awards thanks to her design principles that defy areas of specialization, making her capable in almost every other subcategory.
Koz believes that a designer's true mission is to go beyond "shaping an object" and produce ideas about the future and bring them to life.
Seyhan Özdemir
Architect, Founding Partner, AUTOBAN
Seyhan Özdemir Sarper studied architecture at the Fine Arts Faculty of Mimar Sinan University, where she also met her future partner Sefer Çağlar. The two graduated in 1998 and after gaining experience at other architecture and design firms, they co-founded Autoban in 2003. Autoban works across architecture and interiors, and experiential design, forging a reputation for thoughtfulness, experimentation and craftsmanship.
With a portfolio that includes a collection of projects throughout hospitality, retail, residential, aviation, transportation and public realm developments, Autoban's work is typified by familiar forms and materials repurposed in vital, contemporary ways. After redefining the cityscape of Istanbul in the early 2000's, the studio's work has extended to include large scale signature projects from Europe to Asia and the Indian Ocean. Award winning projects can be found in major centers such as London, Manchester, Malta, the Maldives and Thailand.
Autoban also designs a range of signature products which are sold in over 50 locations worldwide, most notably with the recent Autoban Renewed collection for Delaespada. As founder and head of design at Autoban, Seyhan Özdemir Sarper has been guest speaker and lecturer at a range of local and international conferences and has also served on the jury for international architecture and design awards.
Mehmet Ali Uysal
Artist
Mehmet Ali Uysal was born in 1976 in Mersin, Turkey. He is currently working as a research associate in the Department of Fine Arts and Music at Middle Eastern Technical University. The artist is represented by Pi Artworks since 2009.
Among the important exhibitions and residency programs he participated domestically and abroad are the solo exhibitions Tebdilimekan in Istanbul (2005) and Ex-libris at Gallery Eigheinheim in Germany (2008), the Contemporary Art Residence Le Vent Des Forets in France (2008).
Mehmet Ali Uysal creates large scale installations that are integrated into the material of the building they are situated in, transforming the venue and altering both the viewer's perception of the space as well as how they move around it. Today, the process of creating, exhibiting, and perceiving contemporary art is deeply intertwined with the austere, white walled gallery space that continuously erases traces of its history to look perfect and untouched. Uysal wants to invert this tradition and revive the gallery space as a living entity by interfering directly with the structure of the white cube and deconstructing both its formal characteristics and inherited traditions.