Ineke Hans, Kevin Carmody and Maria Cristina Didero named Dezeen Awards 2023 judges

Designer Ineke Hans, architect Kevin Carmody, curator Maria Cristina Didero, woodworker Sophie Sellu and fashion designer Patrick McDowell have been announced as Dezeen Awards 2023 judges.

Dezeen Awards 2023 in partnership with Bentley Motors is open for entries. Submit your project before midnight London time on 1 June to avoid late entry fees.

Now in its sixth year, the programme has become the ultimate accolade for architects and designers everywhere, with winners selected by a prestigious panel of international judges.

Read on to learn more about five of the 90 industry professionals judging entries this year:

Ineke Hans
Ineke Hans is the founder of Dutch design office Ineke Hans Studio

Dutch designer Hans is the founder of Arnhem-based practice Ineke Hans Studio. Hans set up her firm in 1998 after graduating from the Royal College of Art in London. Her practice designs furniture, products, exhibitions and spaces, with a special focus on using recycled materials.

Projects by the Dutch design studio include a plastic chair made using recycled plastic from fishing nets, toothbrushes, office chair components and other industrial waste, and a steam-bent conference chair for the Austrian art gallery Kunsthalle Wien.

Since 2017 Hans has been a design and social context professor at the Universität der Künste in Berlin.

Kevin Carmody
Kevin Carmody is co-founder of London-based architecture practice Carmody Groarke

Architect Carmody is co-founder of London-based studio Carmody Groarke. The architectural practice has completed projects including a lower-level entrance and gallery space at a science museum in Manchester and a drum-shaped pavilion for a theatre within Hamburg's concrete Grossmarkt wholesale market.

Current projects by the practice include an extension to the Design Museum Gent in Belgium, plus a decarbonisation masterplan and new archive for the British Library in Boston Spa.

Carmody has taught at the Royal College of Arts, Bartlett School of Architecture and Yale School of Architecture. He is currently a design critic at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design.

Maria Cristina Didero
Milan-based Maria Cristina Didero is a writer, editor and curator

Milan-based Didero is a design curator and author. She has written for magazines including Icon and Wallpaper. She has contributed to several publications as well as consulted for companies such as furniture brands Vitra and Fritz Hansen, automotive brand Lexus, and fashion labels Fendi, Louis Vuitton and Valextra, among others.

Didero worked on several projects with Vitra Design Museum, including the curation of SuperDesign, a project about Italian radical design in New York which comprised an exhibition, film and book published by Monacelli Press.

In 2022 she was appointed Design Miami curatorial director for the year, curating the Basel and Miami Beach fairs under the overarching theme of the golden age.

Sophie Sellu
Sophie Sellu is the founder of London-based woodwork design studio Grain and Knot

Artisan Sellu is the founder of woodworking and design studio Grain and Knot. The London-based designer uses traditional hand tools and techniques to create hand-crafted wooden kitchenware from reclaimed local timber.

The pieces are tactile, often featuring free-form shapes and organic textures, informed by the reclaimed timber they are made from.

Woodworker Sellu is also currently a judge for British broadcaster Channel 4's programme Handmade: Britain's Best Woodworker.

Patrick Mcdowell
British designer Patrick McDowell is the founder of fashion label Patrick Mcdowell

Designer Mcdowell is the founder and curator of eponymous London-based fashion brand Patrick McDowell.

After graduating from Central Saint Martins, British designer McDowell showcased his debut collection at London Fashion Week in 2018, where he used waste fabrics he sourced from the fashion label Burberry.

Helsinki Fashion Week founder Evelyn Mora named McDowell one of five designers that most inspired her in 2019.

Dezeen Awards 2023

Dezeen Awards celebrates the world's best architecture, interiors and design. Now in its sixth year, it has become the ultimate accolade for architects and designers across the globe. The annual awards are in partnership with Bentley Motors, as part of a wider collaboration that will see the brand work with Dezeen to support and inspire the next generation of design talent.