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Buildings account for nearly one third of all global energy consumption and contribute to global carbon emissions in similar proportions. How do buildings, how does architecture have to change to reduce its hunger for energy? How can buildings make use of renewable energies to sustain themselves? What is the role of technology in this transition and what about the human factor? Join us for a conversation with Mireia Luzarraga Alvarez, Takk Architecture, Rufei Wang, Parsons School of Design, and moderated by Jochen Eisenbrand, Vitra Design Museum, Weill am Rhein.
This program is presented in conjunction with muscon2025 and is co-hosted by the Vitra Design Museum, vitra., and the Goethe Institut New York.
Biographies
Mireia Luzarraga Alvarez founded TAKK, an architecture and design studio in Barcelona, in 2010 with Alejandro Muiño. Their projects investigate how architecture can serve as a catalyst for the development of more democratic lives through the incorporation of feminist thinking, ecology, and politics into its practice. TAKK’s work has received recognition such as the COAM award, the “Temps de les Arts” award, and the FAD award. TAKK’s work takes place in both the public and private spheres, and clients include FRAC-Centre Val de Loire, IVAM (Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno), Barcelona City Council, FAD(Foment de les Arts i el Disseny), FITUR (Feria de Turismo), or CA2M (Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo), and international brands such as Vitra, Swatch, Hermès, and Moncler.
Their reference art and design galleries for their furniture work are Side Gallery Barcelona and Camp Design Milan. TAKK’s work belongs to the permanent collection of the FRAC- Centre Val de Loire and has been exhibited at the Oslo Triennale, and the Venice, San Sebastián, Tallinn, Maia, and Rabat Biennales, among others. Mireia Luzárraga is currently a Dean’s Visiting Professors at Columbia GSAPP in New York and International Visiting Professors at the University of Tokyo and also Associated Professor at the IAAC(Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia), and La Salle, Barcelona.
Rufei Wang is currently an Adjunct Faculty at Parsons School of Design and previously worked at Atelier Ten as a sustainability consultant for many years, where she provided interdisciplinary sustainability consulting services for projects across a wide range of sectors. She led the integrative design process, ensuring sustainability is incorporated into each project from the early stages. She has a variety of expertise in daylight and thermal comfort optimization, energy efficiency, carbon reduction, benchmarking, with a specialization in passive design strategies integration. She has led the sustainability vision for many high-profile projects including the net-zero targeted Kihei High School, the net-zero and LEED Platinum targeted Obama Presidential Center, LEED Platinum certified Wellesley Science Center Addition, etc.
She has also served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University, teaching Environments in Design course, and as a guest critic at many other universities, including Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, Wellesley College, Northeastern University, Iowa State University, the City University of New York.
Rufei holds master’s degrees in Energy and the Environment from Harvard University and Architecture from the Technical University of Munich. She is a recipient of the Building Design + Construction 40 under 40 Award and Consulting-Specifying Engineer 40 under 40 Award.
Jochen Eisenbrand (b.1970) is Chief Curator at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, where he has been in charge of several exhibition projects including »Airworld – Designand Architecture for Air Travel« (2004), »Hidden Heroes – The Genius of Everyday Things« (2010), »Night Fever: Designing Club Culture 1960 – Today«(2018), »Plastic: Remaking Our World« (2022), and »Transform! Designing the Future of Energy” (2024). He also curated retrospectives on George Nelson(2008), Louis Kahn (with Stanislaus von Moos, 2012), Alvar Aalto (2014), and Alexander Girard (2016). Many of these exhibitions have also been presented at further museums in Europe, Northern America and Asia. Jochen co-edited several exhibition catalogues as well as the »Atlas of Furniture Design« (2019), the most extensive book on modern furniture design ever published. He is currently co-curating the exhibition »Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show« opening in October 2025.
Jochen holds a Master of Arts degree in Cultural Studies from the University of Lüneburg and a DPhil from the University of Wuppertal. His doctoral thesis on George Nelson, which presents this designer in the context of the Cold War era, was published in 2014.
Buildings account for nearly one third of all global energy consumption and contribute to global carbon emissions in similar proportions. How do buildings, how does architecture have to change to reduce its hunger for energy? How can buildings make use of renewable energies to sustain themselves? What is the role of technology in this transition and what about the human factor? Join us for a conversation with Mireia Luzarraga Alvarez, Takk Architecture, Rufei Wang, Parsons School of Design, and moderated by Jochen Eisenbrand, Vitra Design Museum, Weill am Rhein.
This program is presented in conjunction with muscon2025 and is co-hosted by the Vitra Design Museum, vitra., and the Goethe Institut New York.
Biographies
Mireia Luzarraga Alvarez founded TAKK, an architecture and design studio in Barcelona, in 2010 with Alejandro Muiño. Their projects investigate how architecture can serve as a catalyst for the development of more democratic lives through the incorporation of feminist thinking, ecology, and politics into its practice. TAKK’s work has received recognition such as the COAM award, the “Temps de les Arts” award, and the FAD award. TAKK’s work takes place in both the public and private spheres, and clients include FRAC-Centre Val de Loire, IVAM (Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno), Barcelona City Council, FAD(Foment de les Arts i el Disseny), FITUR (Feria de Turismo), or CA2M (Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo), and international brands such as Vitra, Swatch, Hermès, and Moncler.
Their reference art and design galleries for their furniture work are Side Gallery Barcelona and Camp Design Milan. TAKK’s work belongs to the permanent collection of the FRAC- Centre Val de Loire and has been exhibited at the Oslo Triennale, and the Venice, San Sebastián, Tallinn, Maia, and Rabat Biennales, among others. Mireia Luzárraga is currently a Dean’s Visiting Professors at Columbia GSAPP in New York and International Visiting Professors at the University of Tokyo and also Associated Professor at the IAAC(Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia), and La Salle, Barcelona.
Rufei Wang is currently an Adjunct Faculty at Parsons School of Design and previously worked at Atelier Ten as a sustainability consultant for many years, where she provided interdisciplinary sustainability consulting services for projects across a wide range of sectors. She led the integrative design process, ensuring sustainability is incorporated into each project from the early stages. She has a variety of expertise in daylight and thermal comfort optimization, energy efficiency, carbon reduction, benchmarking, with a specialization in passive design strategies integration. She has led the sustainability vision for many high-profile projects including the net-zero targeted Kihei High School, the net-zero and LEED Platinum targeted Obama Presidential Center, LEED Platinum certified Wellesley Science Center Addition, etc.
She has also served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University, teaching Environments in Design course, and as a guest critic at many other universities, including Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, Wellesley College, Northeastern University, Iowa State University, the City University of New York.
Rufei holds master’s degrees in Energy and the Environment from Harvard University and Architecture from the Technical University of Munich. She is a recipient of the Building Design + Construction 40 under 40 Award and Consulting-Specifying Engineer 40 under 40 Award.
Jochen Eisenbrand (b.1970) is Chief Curator at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, where he has been in charge of several exhibition projects including »Airworld – Designand Architecture for Air Travel« (2004), »Hidden Heroes – The Genius of Everyday Things« (2010), »Night Fever: Designing Club Culture 1960 – Today«(2018), »Plastic: Remaking Our World« (2022), and »Transform! Designing the Future of Energy” (2024). He also curated retrospectives on George Nelson(2008), Louis Kahn (with Stanislaus von Moos, 2012), Alvar Aalto (2014), and Alexander Girard (2016). Many of these exhibitions have also been presented at further museums in Europe, Northern America and Asia. Jochen co-edited several exhibition catalogues as well as the »Atlas of Furniture Design« (2019), the most extensive book on modern furniture design ever published. He is currently co-curating the exhibition »Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show« opening in October 2025.
Jochen holds a Master of Arts degree in Cultural Studies from the University of Lüneburg and a DPhil from the University of Wuppertal. His doctoral thesis on George Nelson, which presents this designer in the context of the Cold War era, was published in 2014.
Buildings account for nearly one third of all global energy consumption and contribute to global carbon emissions in similar proportions. How do buildings, how does architecture have to change to reduce its hunger for energy? How can buildings make use of renewable energies to sustain themselves? What is the role of technology in this transition and what about the human factor? Join us for a conversation with Mireia Luzarraga Alvarez, Takk Architecture, Rufei Wang, Parsons School of Design, and moderated by Jochen Eisenbrand, Vitra Design Museum, Weill am Rhein.
This program is presented in conjunction with muscon2025 and is co-hosted by the Vitra Design Museum, vitra., and the Goethe Institut New York.
Biographies
Mireia Luzarraga Alvarez founded TAKK, an architecture and design studio in Barcelona, in 2010 with Alejandro Muiño. Their projects investigate how architecture can serve as a catalyst for the development of more democratic lives through the incorporation of feminist thinking, ecology, and politics into its practice. TAKK’s work has received recognition such as the COAM award, the “Temps de les Arts” award, and the FAD award. TAKK’s work takes place in both the public and private spheres, and clients include FRAC-Centre Val de Loire, IVAM (Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno), Barcelona City Council, FAD(Foment de les Arts i el Disseny), FITUR (Feria de Turismo), or CA2M (Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo), and international brands such as Vitra, Swatch, Hermès, and Moncler.
Their reference art and design galleries for their furniture work are Side Gallery Barcelona and Camp Design Milan. TAKK’s work belongs to the permanent collection of the FRAC- Centre Val de Loire and has been exhibited at the Oslo Triennale, and the Venice, San Sebastián, Tallinn, Maia, and Rabat Biennales, among others. Mireia Luzárraga is currently a Dean’s Visiting Professors at Columbia GSAPP in New York and International Visiting Professors at the University of Tokyo and also Associated Professor at the IAAC(Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia), and La Salle, Barcelona.
Rufei Wang is currently an Adjunct Faculty at Parsons School of Design and previously worked at Atelier Ten as a sustainability consultant for many years, where she provided interdisciplinary sustainability consulting services for projects across a wide range of sectors. She led the integrative design process, ensuring sustainability is incorporated into each project from the early stages. She has a variety of expertise in daylight and thermal comfort optimization, energy efficiency, carbon reduction, benchmarking, with a specialization in passive design strategies integration. She has led the sustainability vision for many high-profile projects including the net-zero targeted Kihei High School, the net-zero and LEED Platinum targeted Obama Presidential Center, LEED Platinum certified Wellesley Science Center Addition, etc.
She has also served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University, teaching Environments in Design course, and as a guest critic at many other universities, including Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, Wellesley College, Northeastern University, Iowa State University, the City University of New York.
Rufei holds master’s degrees in Energy and the Environment from Harvard University and Architecture from the Technical University of Munich. She is a recipient of the Building Design + Construction 40 under 40 Award and Consulting-Specifying Engineer 40 under 40 Award.
Jochen Eisenbrand (b.1970) is Chief Curator at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, where he has been in charge of several exhibition projects including »Airworld – Designand Architecture for Air Travel« (2004), »Hidden Heroes – The Genius of Everyday Things« (2010), »Night Fever: Designing Club Culture 1960 – Today«(2018), »Plastic: Remaking Our World« (2022), and »Transform! Designing the Future of Energy” (2024). He also curated retrospectives on George Nelson(2008), Louis Kahn (with Stanislaus von Moos, 2012), Alvar Aalto (2014), and Alexander Girard (2016). Many of these exhibitions have also been presented at further museums in Europe, Northern America and Asia. Jochen co-edited several exhibition catalogues as well as the »Atlas of Furniture Design« (2019), the most extensive book on modern furniture design ever published. He is currently co-curating the exhibition »Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show« opening in October 2025.
Jochen holds a Master of Arts degree in Cultural Studies from the University of Lüneburg and a DPhil from the University of Wuppertal. His doctoral thesis on George Nelson, which presents this designer in the context of the Cold War era, was published in 2014.
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