Jury

Werner Aisslinger founded studio aisslinger in 1993 in Berlin. The studio has a focus on experimental design, product design, material innovations and architectural concepts. As a designer, he is particularly interested in the use of new technologies and unusual materials. His Juli Chair was the first item of furniture to use a new type of polyurethane integral foam, and became the first German chair since 1964 to be selected as a permanent exhibit at the MoMA in New York. His nomadic architecture modules such as the Loftcube are considered pioneering in the new urban lifestyle. His first major exhibition took place in 2013 at the Museum Haus am Waldsee in Berlin under the title of Home of the Future. His House of Wonders exhibition opened in 2016 in the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, and focuses on such issues as sustainability, upcycling, material innovations and indoor farming.

After completing her Master's degree in "Sustainability in Fashion", Ina Budde taught Sustainable Design at international universities. Today, as co-founder and managing director, she leads the sustainable innovation agency 'circular.fashion', which offers advice and software solutions to move the textile industry towards a circular economy. With workshops, circular design software and criteria, she and her team support fashion brands in producing sustainable and recyclable garments and in establishing solutions for the circular management and recycling of products. In the same way, circularity shall be anchored in the objectives and strategy of companies - to scale a circular future of fashion.

Since 2005, Nanni Grau has co-directed the architecture studio Hütten & Paläste with Frank Schönert, which explores architectural concepts for the adaptive reuse of existing structures, buildings, and neighbourhoods.

The office's approach centers on an architectural practice of minimal intervention through specific architectural strategies and practices. Central to this is an understanding of architecture that fundamentally views buildings in terms of their adaptability, as interconnected living spaces, and as parts of cycles.

Since 2024, she has been a professor of Architecture of Transformation at the Technical University of Berlin. From 2021 to 2024, she was a professor at Munich University of Applied Sciences, and from 2017 to 2018, she was a visiting professor of participatory urban development at the University of Kassel.

Prof. Matthias Held studied product design at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch Gmünd University of Applied Sciences (HfG) and received a master’s degree as a Fulbright scholar from the Pratt Institute in New York. He is co-founder of the quintessence design office in Stuttgart and was appointed professor at the HfG in 2006. There, he contributed to the establishment of the Institute for Applied Research, where he carried out research projects in the field of sustainability, renewable energy and medical technology, among others. He is also engaged in the German Society for Design Theory and Research (DGTF).

To the jury interview with Prof. Matthias Held (2022)

Siddharth Prakash coordinates several national and international projects in the field of Circular Economy with a focus on policies and instruments for sustainable consumption and production, including strengthening eco-labeling and sustainable public procurement and developing minimum legal standards. He has led various projects for public clients and companies in the field of "Strategies against Obsolescence". He is currently advising the Federal Ministry for the Environment and the German Environment Agency on the preparation of the National Recycling Management Strategy in Germany. His sectoral focus is on electrical and electronic equipment.

Paula Raché designs and supervises projects in the fields of packaging design, material and trend research, brand development, publications and exhibition design. Together with Aart van Bezooijen, she went on a worldwide research trip, following which they published the book "It's Not Easy Being Green: Two Designers Exploring Sustainability Worldwide (2012)". It contains contributions from around 60 designers, entrepreneurs and decision-makers from all over the world that are intended to inspire and enable a more sustainable future. Since then, she has been following and documenting international sustainability initiatives and passing on her knowledge and experience to students at various universities, organizations and agencies through consulting, workshops and lectures.

Bettina Rechenberg is the head of Division III “Sustainable Products and Production, Circular Economy” at the German Environment Agency (UBA). The biologist has worked at the UBA since 1992, initially in the areas of water protection and chemical safety, as well as in sustainable production, resource conservation and material cycles. Since 2015, Rechenberg has headed Division III, which analyses the environmental impacts of such activities as the extraction of raw materials, industrial production and usage, and the recycling and disposal of products, and seeks practical, environmentally compatible and resource-saving solutions.

Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter is Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety – for the second time since May 2025 – and a Member of the German Bundestag. From 2018 to 2021, she was already an active member of the jury for the German Ecodesign Award. In addition to her parliamentary and ministerial work, she also serves as Deputy Chair of the SPD in Baden-Württemberg, where she is involved in working groups such as "Sustainable Mobility". She considers "sustainability in social, economic, and political action" a guiding principle of her political work.

Michael Volkmer first completed an apprenticeship as a photographer before studying Communication Design at the FH Wiesbaden. After graduating, he co-founded the creative agency Scholz & Volkmer with Anette Scholz in 1994, focusing on design and digital brand management. Today, the agency, with over 100 employees, operates in Wiesbaden and Berlin, executing campaigns and digital projects for clients, as well as developing their own products in the sustainability sector. In 2006, Michael Volkmer initiated the see-Conference, which has since become one of the largest design conferences in Germany. The underlying association, Bilder der Zukunft e.V., sets the socio-political focus for a sustainable world.