Speakers

Fernanda Canales
Founder & Principal
Fernanda Canales Arquitectura

Fernanda Canales holds a PhD in Architecture from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid, an MA from the Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña in Barcelona and a BA from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. She received the Emerging Voices Award from The Architectural League of New York, was named one of the world’s “100+ Best Architecture Firms” by DOMUS magazine, and was recognized by The New York Times as one of the 10 female figures changing the landscape of leadership in the world. Fernanda is author of the books Shared Structures, Private Space (Actar), Architecture in Mexico 1900-2010 (Arquine), Mi casa, tu ciudad (Puente Editores) and Vivienda Colectiva en México (GG). Her work has been exhibited at The Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Venice Biennale, among other institutions. She has taught design studios at the Politecnico di Milano, GSD Harvard University, Princeton and Yale School of Architecture. She received the Research Graham Foundation Grant in 2022, did a Residency and installation at the VDL Neutra House in Los Angeles, and has published more than 100 essays in specialized magazines such as AA Files, El Croquis, The Architectural Review and Perspecta.

Níall McLaughlin
Principal Níall McLaughlin Architects

Níall McLaughlin was born in Geneva in 1962. He was educated in Dublin and studied architecture at University College Dublin between 1979 and 1984. He worked for Scott Tallon Walker for four years and established his own practice in London in 1990. He designs buildings for education, culture, health, religious worship and housing. He won Young British Architect of the Year in 1998 and received the RIBA Charles Jencks Award for Simultaneous Contribution to Theory and Practice in 2016. Níall was elected an Aosdána Member for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Ireland and as a Royal Academician in the Category of Architecture in 2019. In 2020 he was awarded an Honorary MBE for Services to Architecture. Níall exhibited in the Venice Biennale in 2016 and 2018 and has been shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2013, 2015, 2018 and winner in 2022 for The New Library, Magdalene College.

Níall is Professor of Architectural Practice at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. He was a visiting professor at the University of California Los Angeles from 2012-2013, and was appointed Lord Norman Foster Visiting Professor of Architecture at Yale for 2014-2015.

Significant projects from the practice include the Bandstand (Bexhill 2001), Pier Cafe (Deal 2006), Dirk Cove House (Cork 2004), ARC Building (Hull 2005), Goleen House (Cork 2008), Somerville Student Residence (Oxford 2010), Olympic Athletes' Housing (London 2012), Bishop Edward King Chapel (Oxford 2013), Peabody Housing (Whitechapel 2015), West Court Jesus College (Cambridge 2017), The Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre (Oxford 2017), Auckland Tower & Faith Museum (Bishop Auckland 2020), New Library, Magdalene College (Cambridge 2021), Saltmarsh House (Isle of Wight 2021) and the International Rugby Experience (Limerick 2022). .

John Patkau
Founding Principal
Patkau Architects

John Patkau, in conjunction with Patricia Patkau, founded Patkau Architects in 1978. His contributions to the practice of architecture have been recognized by numerous awards including the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Gold Medal for lifetime achievement and Membership in the Order of Canada for significant contribution to Canadian culture. Internationally, he has also been made an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and an International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

He has been a visiting professor at a number of universities including Norman Foster and Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor at Yale University (in 2011-2014 and 2009, respectively), Eliot Noyes Professor of Architecture at Harvard University (1995) and Raymond E. Moritz Distinguished Visiting Professor at Washington University (1998).

He participated in symposia including the Hay Festival in Segovia, Spain, Sustenta America in Santiago Chile, the 7th International Alvar Aalto Symposium in Jyvaskla, Finland, the New Zealand Institute of Architects National Conference in Auckland, and the Royal Architectural Institute of Scotland National Conference in Edinburgh. He has also lectured widely at numerous institutions including Harvard University, Yale University, University College Dublin, Manchester Master Series, the University of California at Los Angeles, Architecture League of New York, Colegio de Arquitectos de Catalunya, Architectural Association, London, and Royal Institute of British Architects.

Patkau Architects has received significant national and international awards, including nineteen Governor General’s Medals, four Progressive Architecture Awards, sixteen Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence, two RAIC Innovation in Architecture Awards, three Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize for Outstanding Projects, three RIBA International Awards for Excellence, three AIA/ALA Library Building Awards and four AIA Honor Awards.

Leo Villareal
Artist

Leo Villareal is a light artist based in New York City. Over the last 20 years, he has exhibited widely in the United States and abroad. His work is in the permanent collections of museums including The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, Kagawa, Japan; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. In addition to being represented by Pace Gallery, Villareal also creates permanent, site-specific works including: Firmament (Mori), Toranomon Hills Station Tower, Tokyo, Japan; Infinite Composition, Lindemann Performing Arts Center, Brown University, Providence, RI; Fountain (KCI), Kansas City International Airport, Kansas City, Missouri; Light Matrix (Houston), Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine, University of Houston, Houston, Texas; Volume (Frisco), Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters, Frisco, Texas; Buckyball, Exploratorium, San Francisco, California; Light Matrix (MIT), Morris and Sophie Chang Building, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA; Volume (Renwick), Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian American Museum of Art, Washington, D.C.; Radiant Pathway, Rice University, Houston, Texas; Cosmos, Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; Multiverse, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Diagonal Grid, Borusan Music House, Borusan Arts, Istanbul, Turkey; Stars, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY; and Hive (Bleecker Street), for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority at the Bleecker Street subway station in Manhattan. In March 2013, Villareal inaugurated The Bay Lights, a monumental 1.8-mile installation of 25,000 white LED lights on San Francisco's Bay Bridge. In April 2021, Villareal completed Illuminated River, which unites 9 bridges in central London into a single, monumental work of public art.

Villareal was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and grew up in El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Chihuahua. He attended Portsmouth Abbey School in Portsmouth, Rhode Island and received his BA in sculpture from Yale University in 1990 and his master's degree in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University in 1994. After graduating from NYU, Villareal moved to San Francisco to work for three years at Paul Allen's private research lab, Interval Research, in Palo Alto. Since 2004, Villareal has served on the board of Ballroom Marfa in Marfa, Texas, a dynamic, contemporary cultural arts space. In 2011, Villareal proudly joined the board of the Burning Man Project. He currently lives in downtown Manhattan with his wife Yvonne Force Villareal and their two children.

Photo Credit: Jonathan Grassi

Gene Sandoval
Design Partner
ZGF Architects

Gene Sandoval leads design teams for ZGF's most complex and visionary projects, such as the expansion of the Nike World Headquarters Campus and the Portland International Airport. Guided by a commitment to advancing designs that artfully harmonize human needs with environmental sustainability, Gene's journey began in the Philippines, where he cultivated his vivid imagination and honed his unconventional problem-solving while immersed in his family's shipbuilding enterprise.

Susan Jones
Principal Architect
atelierjones

Susan Jones, FAIA, is founder of Seattle-based atelierjones. Devoted to disrupting 20th century design and construction methodologies, her award-winning, all-woman owned and woman-led firm drives new lower-carbon pathways within architecture and construction at scale. Advancing lower-carbon prefabricated mass timber systems, for over a decade, the firm has completed over a dozen mass timber projects, and has designed over twenty, from institutional buildings to large-scale urban housing to urban infill housing, single-family homes and rural/WUI mass timber modular housing. atelierjones’ national leadership in multiple international collaborations and research creates sustainable change at scale. Collaborating, the firm leads nationally and internationally, seeking transparency and rigor on multiple levels, from forest health to LCA collaborations to fire testing to regulatory code design to award-winning design projects that introduce immersive, biophilic experiences for all.

A third-generation native of the Pacific Northwest, Susan grew up in Bellingham, Washington. She earned her B.A from Stanford in Philosophy, and her M.Arch from Harvard GSD and is Affiliate Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington, Susan is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and was awarded the AIASeattle Gold Medal in 2023.

John O'Donald
Regional Director
WoodWorks - Wood Products Council

John is a licensed Structural Engineer in Maryland. Before joining Woodworks, he enjoyed working on various projects in the capital region for clients like the Smithsonian Institute and The National Parks Service, collaborating with architects and other engineers along the way. John is a member of Engineers Without Borders, enjoys woodworking in his free time, and is passionate about the sustainable aspects of wood construction. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering from Penn State University and a Master of Civil Engineering Degree from Johns Hopkins University with a focus in structural engineering.