ECC returns as sponsor for the 2016 Interior Awards

ECC is pleased to return as a sponsor for the 2016 Interior Awards. A stellar line-up of industry professionals have the difficult task of selecting the best — Ben Hayes, Joanna Merwood-Salisbury, Harry Rowntree, Jo Monaghan and Federico Monsalve.

Ben Hayes is a director of RTA Studio where his primary focus is on commercial architecture and interior design across a broad spectrum of projects including: Ironbank, EMI, Alexandra Park apartments, the Mackelvie Street retail precinct, and a number of design and advertising agencies for .99, Colenso BBDO and Clemenger BBDO. He studied at The Bartlett, UCL, in London and is a registered architect in both New Zealand and the UK. 

Joanna Merwood-Salisbury is Head of the School of Architecture at Victoria University of Wellington, and a co-editor of After Taste: Expanded Practice in Interior Design (2011). From 2007 to 2014, she was a co-organiser of After Taste, an annual symposium exploring contemporary interiors at The New School, Parsons School for Design in New York City. Her current research project, ‘Exterior Interiors’, asks what is possible when interior design, architecture, urban design and landscape design come together. 

Harry Rowntree is a principal at Unispace, where he specialises in workplace design and strategy for complex commercial clients. His experience includes residential architecture as well as almost a decade of working in Tokyo alongside renowned designers, Masaki Kasuya and Taiji Yamamoto. During his previous role at Jasmax, Harry was involved in the design of Auckland waterfront’s The Cloud, Vodafone’s new South Island HQ and Icebreaker’s new HQ in Ponsonby. 

Jo Monaghan is the Workplace Design Manager at BNZ. She is responsible for workplace transformation, corporate building strategy and major project delivery. She is a UK-registered architect specialising in commercial design and previously worked for Warren and Mahoney. She was awarded CoreNet Corporate Real Estate Executive of the Year in 2015. Jo is currently studying for a Masters in Sustainable Design at The University of Auckland.

Federico Monsalve is the editor of Interior and Urbis magazines and this will be his third year as convener of the Interior Awards. Federico is a writer and journalist who has worked in-house and as a freelancer/columnist for local and overseas media including: Los Angeles Magazine, Monocle,ArtNews (New York), The New Zealand Herald and many others.