FABRICATE 2027

Anupama Kundoo‘s research-oriented practice, which started in India in 1990, has generated people-centric architecture based on spatial and material research for low environmental impact while being socio-economically beneficial. She received the 2021 RIBA Charles Jencks award for her contribution to architectural theory, the 2021 Auguste Perret Prize for architectural technology, and the Global Award for Sustainable architecture under UNESCO patronage in 2022. Anupama Kundoo graduated from University of Mumbai in 1989 and received her PhD degree from TU Berlin in 2008. Her studios are based in Berlin in Germany, and Pondicherry in India. Kundoo’s rigorous research and experimentation in new materiality for architecture is the result of questioning basic assumptions, construction habits that humanity has adopted during the long process of industrialization. Critically examining how the time value of money nudged us towards code-based design, over-standardization and industrialized production of building components, she instead looks at consumption of finite natural resources alongside their impact on human wellbeing and evolution of human society. Rather than focussing on shortage, she seeks abundance through investing in human resources and human resourcefulness, such as ingenuity, time, skills, care and sense of community. She believes that ‘The act of building produces knowledge just as the resulting knowledge produces buildings’.

Hester van Dijk (b. 1982) is a spatial designer and co-founder of Overtreders W, a design studio based at the Hembrugterrein in Zaandam, the Netherlands. Together with Reinder Bakker, she designs temporary and circular spatial structures: demountable, reusable, and built from biobased, recycled and locally sourced materials. Rather than consuming resources, the studio borrows and leases them. The work is experimental and poetic, driven by the conviction that sustainable building can be as compelling as it is responsible.

Recent projects include Bouwurk (Leeuwarden, 2025), a temporary community cathedral built with over 5,000 Frisians from local clay, wool and residual materials; The Place to Be (Zelhem, 2025), a fully biobased retreat centre and Overtreders W’s first permanent project; and the set design for VPRO Zomergasten (2025), constructed from second-hand polycarbonate and pruning waste.

Hester is also co-founder of Pretty Plastic, which develops facade cladding from 100% recycled plastic waste. In 2026 she was nominated for the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture, part of the international W Awards.

Amin Taha is a practicing architect, educator, and GROUPWORK chairperson. With Nerissa Yeung and Alex Cotterill directs a postgraduate studio at the Royal College of Art, recently joined Daniels Faculty of Architecture, University of Toronto as the 2026/27 Frank Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architectural Design, and has also been a visiting professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) and the Norman R. Foster chair at the Yale School of Architecture.

His professional work is informed by a longstanding interest in architecture’s social and environmental responsibilities, themes that continue to shape both his practice and teaching. Through GROUPWORK’s employee-owned structure, architects, landscape architects and engineers work as equal partners, advancing new approaches to conservation, ethical design and low-carbon construction. The studio has been four times midlist and twice short-listed for the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize, the UK’s highest architectural honour, and has gained international recognition for projects that challenge conventional approaches to construction, conservation and sustainability.

Alongside his professional academic practice, Taha also acts as a trustee of the Sir John Soane’s Museum, chair of its annual Soane Medal and sits on sustainable development advisory boards of two property funds.

Christian Kwame De-Heer is the co-founder of Hive Earth, a Ghana-based company specialising in sustainable construction using locally sourced earth materials. His work focuses on advancing contemporary applications of traditional earth-building techniques, particularly rammed earth, through material innovation, experimentation and practical construction.

Working across Africa and internationally, Christian explores how indigenous building knowledge can be combined with modern design and construction methods to create more sustainable, accessible and affordable built environments.

He is also co-founder of the emerging HIVE Institute for Vernacular Ecology, an initiative dedicated to research, education and innovation in sustainable construction, with a particular focus on Africa and the Global South.