Speakers

Aulikki Sonntag - Chief Business Development Officer, Staticus

With an international background, Aulikki Sonntag’s professional experience reaches from technical design to executive façade work throughout all project planning phases. She has successfully executed a large variety of façade systems, ranging from high-rise unitized to complex custom design. Pursuing innovative design solutions and high efficiency in performance characterizes her holistic approach to the building envelope. Aulikki Sonntag is working out of Basel-based STATICUS Switzerland Ltd. Her focus is the design and development of project and climate specific facades, using an Interactive Building Process, interfacing Architecture, Energy Design, and Structural Engineering.

Alessandro Gambale - CEO, BuildWind

Alessandro Gambale holds a Master's Degree in Aerospace Engineering from "La Sapienza" University, Rome (Italy). He worked as a research engineer for the Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (Belgium), where he was involved in applied research projects dealing with microfluidics and environmental fluid dynamics. He later became a research and teaching assistant at UMONS University (Belgium), where he investigated advanced combustion techniques within a research program of the International Energy Agency. He co-founded BuildWind in 2018.

Alessandra Luna Navarro - Assistant Professor, TU Delft

Alessandra is Assistant Professor in Façade Design and Engineering at TU Delft and co-founder at Building Impulse. She has been Visiting Scholar at CBE at UC Berkeley in 2024. Her research revolves around human-building interaction, in particular on human-façade interaction. She is a chartered engineer in Italy and the UK and she has been working on different façades, from modern flagship buildings such as “La Nuvola” (Rome) to the refurbishment of historical buildings. She has a Masters’ degree in Building Engineering and Architecture from La Sapienza University of Rome and a MPhil in Energy Technologies from the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. She obtained a PhD from the University of Cambridge and her research was awarded with the Future Cities Fellowship at the University of Cambridge and funded by Arup, Permasteelisa and EPSRC.

Naofumi Isomoto - Performance Research Department Manager, Japan Sash Manufacturers Association

Isomoto Naofumi joined Fujisash Co., Ltd. since graduating from Kanagawa University in 2004. He began in the Product Development Department and since 2021 he has been working in the Performance Research Department. He conducts extensive performance evaluations for numerous building envelope solutions, including major projects like Sapporo Sosei Square and Shinagawa Development Project. He has played a key role in developing several Japanese industrial standards and , to define testing methods and calculation standards for diagonal deformability and thermal performance of curtain walling. Since 2022, he has also been representing Fujisash on the global stage as part of ISO/TC162 Working Group 5 Curtain Walling.

Martin Wunder - Partner, Global BMU

Martin Wunder is a Partner at Global BMU, renowned for his expertise in the mechanical and industrial engineering sectors. With a rich history in operational leadership and technical prowess, Martin is skilled in negotiation, budgeting, and operations management. His strong entrepreneurial acumen and comprehensive knowledge in engineering make him a pivotal asset in driving business growth and innovation. Martin holds a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund, and he has further enhanced his strategic capabilities as a graduate of INSEAD, one of the world's leading business schools. Previously, Martin excelled as the Regional Director for Europe & South America at CoxGomyl, where he successfully led expansions and managed diverse teams across international projects.

Randall Knox - Project Manager, Global BMU

Responsible for project management for Façade Access solutions for large scale projects, as well as design and construction documentation. Extensive experience with Building Information Modeling and design visualization, including development of parametric models of Facade Access equipment and systems. Previously, Randall held the position of Designer in the Facade Access Group at Lerch Bates. Randall holds a degree in the Design of the Environment from the University of Pennsylvania, plus an MBA with a concentration in Finance from the Seton Hall University Stillman School of Business, and has worked extensively to apply advanced systems and methods including Critical Path Method and Business Case methodologies to project management.

Srdjan Avram | Director, bKL Architecture

Srdjan Avram is an architect with over 20 years of experience, specializing in high-rise projects and proficient in managing all phases of project development. His extensive portfolio in the US includes educational and institutional facilities, multi-family residential buildings, and mixed-use developments, many of which have received LEED Gold and LEED Silver certifications.
Srdjan began his architectural studies at the University of Belgrade and continued at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he earned his master’s degrees in architecture. He is a licensed architect in Illinois and holds memberships with the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), and is a CSI Certified Construction Specifier (CCS).

Paolo Rigone - Technical Director, UNICMI

Paolo Rigone earned a PhD in Building Ergotechnics Engineering and since 2007, he has served as an Associate Professor at the Politecnico di Milano, teaching courses related to building envelope design and engineering. Since 1989, he has been a partner at Studio di Ingegneria Rigone, focusing on building envelope technologies. He worked as a consultant in major construction projects in Milan, such as the renovation of the Pirelli Skyscraper, the Porta Nuova complex, and the CityLife development. Since 2000, he has been the technical director of UNICMI, focusing on metal construction and the development of technical standards for building envelopes. He contributes to national and international technical committees, including serving as the Convenor for the Working Groups CEN/TC33/WG6 and ISO/TC162/WG5 on curtain walling.

Ricardo Dan Diaz - Co-Founder, The Façade Studio

Ricardo is cofounder at the Façade Studio, a company based in Mexico City dedicated to solve façade projects focusing on energy efficiency, safety, affordability and design intent compliance of the façade. Ricardo studied Architecture at University of Colima, Mexico and as an Architect, he specialized in energy simulations to determine façade systems performance. He has led teams at The Façade Studio trough the design and study of the façade for commercial, residential, retail and hospitality projects along Mexico working with interdisciplinary teams from Mexico and the US. Ricardo has taught courses at the ITC (Technological Institute of Construction) on the Specialty for Sustainability on Edification. At the University of Colima he taught the course of Architectural Representation, an has lectured conferences in different Universities across Mexico.

Ingo Stelzer - Senior Technical Program Manager, Kuraray Europe

Ingo Stelzer is Senior Technical Program Manager at Kuraray Europe GmbH. With more than 20 years of professional experience in the glass and façade industry he has been involved into the realization of many projects and R&D programs worldwide. He is also an active member of DIN & EN Code Work groups in Europe. In year 2000 he received his engineering degree at the University of Hanover.
Positions before joining Kuraray have been at DuPont / GLS as a Senior Consultant and at the Seele-Group as a Technical Director.

Michael Kraus - Founder | CEO, M&M Network-ING UG

Michael Anton Kraus studied Civil Engineering at the Technical University Munich. He was selected (2012-2014) for the Honours program of the Bavarian Graduate School of Computational Engineering (BGCE). Michael worked at the Institute and Laboratory for Structural Engineering at the Bundeswehr University Munich and his PhD thesis (2019) was on “Machine Learning Techniques for the Material Parameter Identification of Laminated Glass in the Intact and Post-Fracture State“. In 2020 he joined the Stanford University CA/USA to collaborate as Post-Doc researcher in the field of applying AI on modelling of materials and structures. His research focuses on the application of uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis, material modelling and AI / Machine Learning to practical engineering problems, especially in the field of structural (glass) engineering.

Jacopo Montali - Founder, Algorixon

Jacopo is a construction professional with a mixed background in façade engineering, structural engineering and computer science. After a master’s degree in civil engineering at the University of Parma (Italy) in 2009, he worked for 15 years on various project across the globe by providing non-standard solutions to unique engineering problems. Meanwhile, he moved in 2014 to the UK for a PhD in Engineering at the University of Cambridge, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Laing O'Rourke plc. During the PhD, he developed digital apps with the goal of integrating various design & manufacturing criteria for the design of prefabricated façade panels. He is a chartered engineer in Italy and in the UK at the Institution of Civil Engineers, a Member of the Society of Facade Engineering and in 2019 he founded Algorixon.

Carlos Pascual Agulló - Research Associate, University of Cambridge

Carlos Pascual Agulló was Research Associate at the Glass & Façade Technology Research (gFT) Group at the University of Cambridge. He led experimental and analytical research on composite glass panels that have the potential to meet architectural, building physics and structural performance requirements in building façade applications. He joined gFT from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne where he completed his PhD thesis on translucent load-bearing GFRP envelopes for daylighting and solar cell integration in building construction. Prior to this Carlos graduated in Civil Engineering at Universitat Politècnica de València in 2008 and worked as structural engineer in the design of GFRP structures for building and bridge construction. Today, Carlos is R&D Director at Bellapart where he leads research on the development of slender and structural composite metal-glass panels for building envelopes.

Iva Ganev - Environment and Climate Policy Manager, Glass for Europe

Iva Ganev has been working in European affairs in Brussels since 2006. Since the beginning of her career, she has taken on building an expertise in the high-stake climate and environment field. After managing the Environment department of a consultancy, she was invited to develop the climate strategy and advocacy of an EU association, where she accompanied in particular the EU ETS compliance and decarbonisation projects of an industrial sector. Then, following a return to the consultancy world and some exciting projects, she took on her current role of Environment and Climate Policy Manager for the EU flat glass association in 2021, at pivotal times for the glass and glazing sector. Her expertise is at the crossroads of EU environment and climate policy, and industrial advancement and compliance.

Christian Scherer - Head of Business Development Glass at H.B. Fuller / Kömmerling Chemische Fabrik GmbH

Dr. Christian Scherer, Head of Business Development in Glass at H.B. Fuller, specializes in innovative technologies for smart glass, façades, and structural glazing. With a career starting at Kömmerling in 2010 and extensive experience in R&D and business development, he promotes energy-efficient and sustainable construction solutions. Dr. Scherer collaborates with R&D teams to enhance products like insulating and laminating glass, contributing to higher performance façades. Notably, he developed the Ködispace 4SG warm edge spacer, which improves energy efficiency and indoor air quality. A global traveler and active contributor to scientific journals, Dr. Scherer continually drives advancements in glass technology for construction.

Miriam Schuster - Head of Glass and Polymer Unit, Institute of Structural Mechanics and Design

Miriam Schuster studied civil engineering at the University of Luxembourg and TU Darmstadt (2014). After working at the Luxembourg engineering firm Schroeder&Associés, she returned to TU Darmstadt in February 2016 as a research assistant at the Institute of Structural Mechanics and Design (ISM+D). In January 2022, she successfully defended her PhD on "Characterization of laminated safety glass interlayers - thermorheology, crystallinity and viscoelasticity". Since then, she has been working as Head of the glass and polymer group at ISM+D, and as a postdoc on the sustainability and circularity of glass in construction. She is a member of the standardization committee "Glass in Civil Engineering" and represents the institute in the German Association of Structural Engineering.

Robert-Jan van Santen - Partner | Co-Founder, VS-A.group

Robert-Jan van Santen graduated in Architecture from UPA3 Versailles, France. He worked for 4 years in “Atelier de Paris” with Renzo Piano. He set up his own consulting firm for building envelopes, “Bureau d’études façade van SANTEN” in 1989, which later became “van SANTEN & Associés” in 1999, and later VS-A in 2010. Under his supervision came the establishments of VS-A.HK in 2011, VS-A.KR in 2013, VS-A. SZ in 2018. In the last decade, he was instrumental in the formation of VS-A Design, which hosts VS-A’s R&D activities. The design outputs are regularly patented. The Korean start-up company, UBLO was jointly set up with Naree Kim. He was honored with the Silver Medal from the French Académie d’Architecture for Research and Technique in 2008. In 2019, one of his leaded projects “Vanke Binhai Cloud Center” in Shenzhen, CHINA was awarded by CTBUH Façade Engineering Award 2019.

Workshop Moderators

Francesco Isaia - Senior Researcher, Eurac Research

Graduated in Building Engineering at Politecnico di Torino in October 2014, after an experience in the field of Project and Construction Management in Milan, he starts a PhD in Energetics at Politecnico di Torino. During the PhD he spends a visiting research period at the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre (SBRC) of the University of Wollogong (Australia). In July 2020 he obtains the PhD degree with the thesis “Exploiting the potential of adaptive building components by means of innovative control strategies”. Francesco is now Senior Researcher within the Energy Efficient Buildings group of Eurac Research (Bolzano, Italy). He works on the implementation of advanced control strategies for adaptive building facades, with research interests in the application of methods such as Model Predictive Control and Artificial Intelligence techniques to improve the energy performance and comfort conditions in buildings.

Massimo Rossetti - Associate Professor, Iuav University of Venice

Massimo Rossetti, Architect and Ph.D., is Associate Professor in Architectural Technology at the Department of Architecture and Arts, Università Iuav di Venezia. He took part in several research project (PRIN, PON, POR-FSE), and carried out research on Building Integrated Photovoltaic in architectural envelope and on wooden load-bearing curtain wall with glass infill panels. He is currently involved in research projects concerning the use of wood as envelope, structural and cladding material for emergency and temporary units designed with a Circular Economy approach and on façade integrated photovoltaic thermoelectric devices.