Cross Pollinator Project: Portfolio Review Workshop

Zone: online

Hosts: Rafael Portillo, Maria Loreto Flores, Graham Modlen, Hannes  Hulstaert, Chris Wight, Lena Pianovska, Giacomo Brunelli, Carry Somers

For whom the workshops are dedicated? For architects and creative practitioners interested in gaining feedback on their work. This is intended for university students to early year professionals.

Participation information: This is a free online workshop with limited spaces. Registration is required to attend. Tickets and information are available at www.artificialkreativity.com/Lodz2024. After registering you will be asked to send samples of your work to an email provided. Prior to the workshop a link will be sent to attend the online event. Each participant will have the opportunity to receive 2 reviews from different reviewers. 

Registration. Free admission. Registration for the workshops will open on April 22.

*the workshop only in English 

The workshop was included in the Łódź Design Festival 2024 program as part of the open programme call.

Rafael Portillo (Architecture). Founder of Artificial Kreativity, UK 

Rafael founded Artificial Kreativity as a design-led architecture studio merging technology, art, and architecture, with the aim to advance society. With his studio, he is supporting the creative community with the Cross Pollinator Project. It aims to make architecture and creative professions accessible to everyone while offering support with professional development. For over 10 years, he has reviewed portfolios for architecture candidates applying to Cornell University’s architecture school in New York. Prior to launching his studio, he worked with Zaha Hadid Architects. His career spans over 18 years of designing iconic buildings at multiple scales ranging from cultural buildings, FIFA stadiums, masterplans, commercial retail, and private residential designs. Key projects comprise Pierres Vives, Chartres Parc des Expo, Symbiotic Villa, and Diyar Town Center Masterplan. Design interests stem from music, art, landscape, fashion, creativity, and technology. He is a native of Los Angeles, received his BArch from Cornell University, MArch from the Architectural Association, and sits on the board of trustees with London Play. 

Maria Loreto Flores (Architecture). Associate Director at Zaha Hadid Architects, UK 

Chilean-born architect, Maria Loreto, manages multi-disciplinary teams that specialize in complex geometries and construction for projects in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. She focuses on large scale projects comprising masterplans, towers, expos, and convention centres. Built work includes the luxury Morpheus Hotel in Macau, China; Pierres Vives, France; and d’Leedon Residential Complex, Singapore. She is part of the steering committee of Women in Architecture (WIA) and previously taught workshops and design studios at the Universidad de Chile. She has been a visiting critic in architecture schools in both Chile and the UK including the Architectural Association and Bartlett at UCL. 

Graham Modlen (Architecture). Architect Graham Modlen, UK 

Graham has over 30 years experience working with acclaimed offices as a project architect and designer. This includes director of Zaha Hadid Architects where he was involved in her early career from the 90’s and an associate at Austin-Smith: Lord in London. Key projects include the Sheikh Zayed Bridge and Qasr Al Hosn in Abu Dhabi. As an architect and artist with his own practice Graham continues to explore design through a sketching process. Collaborations include urban scale projects with local architects in Alicante, Spain and residential development projects in South London with Atelier SET. He is on the board of trustees with Daw’an Architecture Foundation, whose charity work is restoring the mud brick architecture of Yemen. Currently he is the first year design tutor in the architecture school at the University of Greenwich. 

Hannes  Hulstaert (Bio-Colour Developer). Co-Founder of Post Carbon Lab, UK 

Hannes is the co-founder of Post Carbon Lab, a social enterprise offering innovative research and design services for textile-based companies. With co-founder Dian-Jen Lin, they use microbial organisms (bacteria, algae, and fungi) to create sustainable dyes and colours for textiles. This bio-based process can be applied as a finish or printed onto textile-based products to replace the harmful petrochemical dyes and colours today. Collaborations include MCQ, DS Automobile, AZGARD9 and many small independent designers to test their technologies. Originally trained as an architect, his career explores various creative disciplines, including audiovisual art, research, woodwork, and design. Hannes has been published in STUDIO Architecture and Urbanism magazine for his writings on unconventional approaches towards the social, cultural and technological analysis of urban architecture. In 2015, he was awarded the Henry van de Velde Prize and has previously taught workshops at the Department of Architecture at the University of Antwerp. 

Chris Wight (Art). Ceramic Artist, UK 

For over 25 years, Chris has devoted his career to working with bone china and seeking new modes of expression with this highly traditional material. As a student, he trained with designers and modelers from Wedgwood and Royal Doulton. With vessel forms, sculpture, panels, and screens, his pieces span gallery, interior, and architectural scales. These often combine new technologies with hand made production methods. His latest work focuses on the unique sound properties of bone china as he develops a large ceramic Soundscape with Grammy Award winning percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie. Chris’s work has been shown at Sotheby’s, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Saatchi Gallery, Bernardaud, Garth Clark as well as numerous exhibitions in Japan and Korea. In June this year his ‘Portland Arcana’ installation will feature at the Crocker Museum of Art in California. 

Lena Pianovska (Branding | Packaging Design). Co-founder of LIVI | Board of Directors at STGU, Poland

Co–founder of the LIVI branding studio, she is a strategist, designer, creative director, branding expert, mentor, and university design lecturer. Her aim is to raise the profile of the design profession. This includes initiating the STGU Mentoring Program, coordinating the Podcaster for designers – STGU CatchUp, and promoting entrepreneurship within the graphic design industry. Lena is a member of the STGU competition team and a jury member for local and international graphic and branding competitions. She is a graduate of the School of Brand Strategy, PhD studies at the Warsaw School of Economics, the School of Human Rights and Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw. She is currently a board representative of the Polish Association for Graphic Designers (STGU) and the Chairman of the ICoD Audit Committee (former ICOGRADA).

Giacomo Brunelli (Fine Art Photography). Photographer, UK 

As a fine art photographer, he has over 20 years of experience in the field capturing animals, people and the streets. His striking style reflects a black and white film noir aesthetic working in gelatin silver prints that he prints himself in his darkroom. He was commissioned by The Photographers’ Gallery to develop “Eternal London” a two year period exploring London through his lens. He has won the Sony World Photography Award and the Grand Prix Lodz, Poland. Along with his works being exhibited internationally, they are part of public collections at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston; Portland Art Museum, USA; Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, Japan; and New Art Gallery Walsall. Published books include: The Animals (Dewi Lewis), Eternal London (Dewi Lewis), Self Portraits, New York, Hamburg, and Venice (TantoPress, Editions Bessard and Skinnerboox). He has a degree in international Communications and resides in London. 

Carry Somers (Fashion). Founder of Fashion Revolution | Co-Founder of League of Artisans, UK 

A force for change in the fashion industry, Carry Somers is a globally-recognised entrepreneur, activist, speaker and writer. Her career in fashion began accidentally in the early ‘90s when a summer holiday project grew into award-winning brand, Pachacuti, a pioneer of radical supply chain transparency and the world’s first Fair Trade Certified company. As founder of Fashion Revolution, the world’s largest fashion activism movement, she has been instrumental in pressuring the industry to take responsibility for its social and environmental impacts. In 2022, she co-founded League of Artisans, a non-profit promoting artisanal skills as a vital response to global challenges. Along the way, Carry has sailed from the Galapagos to Easter Island investigating microplastic and toxic chemical pollution, and collaborated on a show garden for RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Named by Business of Fashion as one of the key people shaping the global fashion industry, Carry holds an MA in Native American Studies, an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Keele University, and is a 2023/4 Churchill Fellow. 

Marta Kowalewska (Art + textile). Chief curator at the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź (CMWŁ), Poland

With over 25 years of experience, Marta Kowalewska is an art historian and critic, curator of exhibitions and author of texts on art. She looks at textiles as a medium rather than a discipline and believes it is a language—carrier of information and a material full of meaning in the hands of visual artists, artisans, craftsmen, architects and fashion designers.

She has curated numerous international exhibitions of renowned artists including Metamorphism. Magdalena Abakanowicz (2017-18), Rebellion of the matter (2017), 100 Flags for the Centenary of Polish Women’s Suffrage (with the 100 FLAG collective, 2019), Antoni Starczewski: The Idea of Linear Notation (with Grzegorz Musiał, 2022), Threads of a New Spirituality (with Elisabetta Mero, 2022), We Are Textile Culture Net! (Hong Kong 2022), and the 16th and 17th International Triennial of Tapestry (2019, 2022).

She has published more than seventy articles, critical texts and interviews including co-authoring the book From Tapestry to Fiber Art: The Lausanne Biennials 1962–1995. She also edited the book Magdalena Abakanowicz. Metamorphism.  She has been on the juries of international textile art competitions and is a board member of the European Textile Network, as well as the chairwoman of the Marta Magdalena Abakanowicz- Kosmowska and Jan Kosmowski Foundation Advisory Board.