NEW YORK, September 25, 2017 – Lexus is excited to announce the addition of visionary architect Sir David Adjaye as the newest judge for Lexus Design Award 2018. Adjaye, one of the most influential architects of his generation, complements an already world-class panel of judges that also recently added innovative architect Shigeru Ban. Through the Lexus Design Award, Sir David Adjaye and other judges will identify and recognize the next wave of global creators and designers.
 
Each year, thousands of talented young creatives from around the world aspire to be selected to participate in Lexus Design Award, where they have an opportunity to receive mentorship from established global designers, prototype funding, and an invitation to exhibit at the Lexus Design Event during Milan Design Week. Sir David Adjaye and the other judges will select the 12 finalists that best embody this year’s theme, “CO-“ and reflect the Lexus brand belief that great design can make the world a better place. At Milan Design Week 2018, Adjaye and his fellow judges will award the coveted Grand Prix award to one of the finalists.
 
Named as one of the world’s 100 Most Influential People by Time magazine, the Ghanaian-British architect was knighted in 2017 for services to architecture. In 2016, he received the Panerai London Design Medal. Among his recent accomplishments, Sir Adjaye designed the National Museum of African American History and Culture — a Smithsonian Institution museum, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. — featuring a crown motif from Yoruba (native Nigerian) sculpture.
 
Entries to the Lexus Design Award 2018 competition are accepted from July 24 through October 08. The 12 finalists will be announced in January 2018 and the Grand Prix winner will be announced during Milan Design Week — April 16, 2018. For more information or to submit to the Lexus Design Award 2018, please visit LexusDesignAward.com.

Judge and Mentor Profiles

Judges:

Sir David Adjaye / Architect
Sir David Adjaye OBE is the principal and founder of Adjaye Associates. Born in Tanzania to Ghanaian parents, his broadly ranging influences, ingenious use of materials and sculptural ability have established him as an architect with an artist’s sensibility and vision. His largest project to date, the $540 million Smithsonian Institute National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened on the National Mall in Washington DC in fall of 2016 and was named Cultural Event of the Year by the New York Times. In 2017, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and was recognized as one of the 100 most influential people of the year by Time magazine.

Shigeru Ban / Architect
Born in Tokyo in 1957. Graduated from the Cooper Union. Started working for Arata Isozaki & Associates in 1982. Founded Shigeru Ban Architects in 1985. Became consultant to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 1995. Established the NGO, Voluntary Architects' Network (VAN) in the same year to support disaster relief. Selected works include Nicolas G. Hayek Center, Centre Pompidou- Metz, and Oita Prefecture Art Museum. Recipient of multiple awards, including Grande Médaille d’or de l’Académie d’architecture (2004), Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture (2005), Grand Prize of AIJ (2009), Honorary Doctorate from Technische Universität München (2009), L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France (le grade d’officier) (2010), Auguste Perret Prize (2011), Art Prize from the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs (2012), L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France (le grade de commandeur) (2014) and JIA Gran Prix (2016). Served as Professor at Keio University (2001-2008), Visiting Professor of Harvard University GSD and Cornell University (2010), and currently Professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design (2011-), Guest Professor at Keio University (2015-). Laureate of the 2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Paola Antonelli / Senior Curator MoMA
Paola Antonelli is Senior Curator of Architecture & Design at The Museum of Modern Art, as well as MoMA’s founding Director of Research & Development. Her goal is to promote design’s understanding until its positive influence on the world is universally acknowledged. Her work investigates design’s impact on everyday experience, often including overlooked objects and practices, and combining design, architecture, art, science and technology. She has curated numerous shows, written several books, and lectured worldwide. Antonelli has taught at the University of California, Los Angeles; the Harvard Graduate School of Design; and the MFA programs of the School of Visual Arts in New York. She is currently working on: an exhibition on the 111 garments that changed the world; Design Bites, a book about foods from all over the world appreciated as examples of design; and on a book collecting her essays on the different fields of contemporary design.

Birgit Lohmann / Chief Editor of designboom
Born in Hamburg, Germany, Lohmann studied industrial design in Florence before moving to Milan, where she has lived and worked since 1987. Lohmann has worked as a designer and product development manager for a number of Italian architects and master designers. She has also worked as a design historian for justice departments and international auction houses. As a researcher and lecturer, she has conducted seminars on industrial design at a number of prestigious international universities. In 1999, Lohmann co-founded designboom, where she is currently the Chief Editor, Head of Educational Programming and Curator for International Exhibitions.

Alice Rawsthorn / Design Commentator
Alice Rawsthorn is an award-winning design critic who has written about design for the New York Times for over a decade. Her latest book Hello World: Where Design Meets Life explores design’s impact on our lives. Her next book, A Field Guide to Design, is to be published in spring 2018 as a survey of design today.  Rawsthorn speaks on design at important global events, including TED and the World Economic Forum’s annual meetings at Davos, Switzerland. Based in London, she is chair of trustees of the Chisenhale Gallery and the contemporary dance group Michael Clark Company, and a trustee of the Whitechapel Gallery. Alice was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to design and the arts.

Yoshihiro Sawa / President of Lexus International
Yoshihiro Sawa graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering and Design from Kyoto Institute of Technology. He has held a number of design-related positions since joining Toyota Motor Corporation in 1980, including Chief Officer of Global Design, Planning Division. He was named president of Lexus International in April 2017.

Mentors:

Formafantasma / Designer
Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin are Studio Formafantasma, an Italian designer duo based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. They have developed a coherent body of work characterized by experimental material investigations and explored issues such as the relationship between tradition and local culture, critical approaches to sustainability and the significance of objects as cultural conduits. Their work has been presented and published internationally and museums such as New York's MoMA, London’s Victoria and Albert, New York's Metropolitan Museum, the Chicago Art Institute, the Textiel Museum in Tilburg, the Stedelijk’s-Hertogenbosch, MUDAC Lausanne, the Mint Museum of Craft and Design in North Carolina and the MAK Museum in Vienna have all acquired Formafantasma’s designs for their permanent collections. Andrea and Simone lecture and lead workshops in various international universities and institutions. Currently, they teach at the ‘Well Being’ and 'Contextual Design' Departments of the Design Academy Eindhoven and serve as the heads of the Design bachelor at MADE Program in Siracusa, Italy.

Sou Fujimoto / Architect
Sou Fujimoto was born in Hokkaido, Japan, in 1971. Adfter graduating from the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering at Tokyo University, he established Sou Fujimoto Architectsin 2000. In 2016, he won the first prize for “Pershing,” one of the sites in the French competition called 'Réinventer Paris', following the victories in the Invited International Competition for the New Learning Center at Paris-Saclay's Ecole Polytechnique and the International Competition for the Second Folly of Montpellierin 2014. In 2013, he became the youngest architect to design the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London. His notable works include; “Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2013” (2013), “House NA” (2011), “Musashino Art University Museum & Library” (2010), “Final Wooden House” (2008), “House N” (2008) and many more.

Lindsey Adelman / Designer
Decades before founding her eponymous studio, Lindsey Adelman was already a designer, just not publicly. First, she was simply a precarious, curious child, building endlessly in the backyards of suburban New York, uncertain of how to make a career of it. She went on to study English at Kenyon College and join the the editorial staff at The Smithsonian. Fortunately, there, her accidental discovery of industrial design—in the literal form of a fabricated foam French fry— propelled her to Rhode Island School of Design to make a life of that childhood passion. Today, from her studios in New York and Los Angeles, she manipulates light to create fixtures that are as emotive as they are physically transformative, objects imbued with their own history and meaning, giving color, texture and depth to the world around them.

Jessica Walsh / Designer
Jessica Walsh is a designer and art director working as a partner at New York-based design firm Sagmeister & Walsh. She lectures about design at creative conferences and universities internationally and teaches design at The School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her work has won numerous awards from most major design competitions including, Type Director’s Club, Art Director’s Club, SPD, Print, New York Festivals, D&AD, TDC Tokyo, and Graphis, among many others. She has been awarded Forbes “30 under 30 Top Creatives Designing the Future” and Ad Age’s “Top 10 Visual Creatives." Her work has been featured in numerous books and magazines. Clients include the Museum of Modern Art, The Jewish Museum, Jay-Z, Snapchat, Barneys, the New York Times, Levis, Adobe, and The School of Visual Arts. She hosts mentorship programs for creative women through her initiative, Ladies, Wine & Design, which has spread to over 110 chapters around the world. Her blog and book “40 Days of Dating” has reached over 10 million readers and is currently being developed for the screen by Warner Brothers.