2026 PREMIO ROCA · MASTER COMPETITION

The Jury

Twenty-One Voices from Three Continents

The 2026 jury is led by 11 Principal Jurors from the international architecture and design community, supported by 10 Regional Jurors representing the academic and practice spheres of Europe, Asia, and the Americas — together ensuring every submission receives informed, multicultural, and intellectually rigorous review.

Jurors

Principals

Continents

Rounds

Tier I · Principal Jury

The Principal Panel

Eleven distinguished figures from international architecture, urban design, and visual communication — entrusted with the core of this year's evaluation.

01 · JURY CHAIR

Hayes Slade

AIA, IIDA

Jury Chair · Principal

Principal, Slade Architecture
Former President, AIA New York Chapter

Deborah Berke

FAIA, LEED AP

Principal · Academic

Dean, Yale School of Architecture
Founder, Deborah Berke Partners

Claudia Herasme

Urban Designer

Principal · Public Design

Chief Urban Designer
Department of City Planning

Nick Lembo

Architect, Cornell

Principal · Construction

President
Monadnock Construction, Inc.

Ruchika Modi

AIA, LEED AP

Principal · Studio Director

Studio Director & Associate Partner
Practice for Architecture & Urbanism (PAU)

Justin Garrett Moore

AICP

Principal · Executive Director

Executive Director
Public Design Commission

AJ Pires

Architect, UPenn

Principal · Development

President
Alloy Development, Brooklyn

Katherine W. Swenson

Design Educator & Writer

Principal · VP of Design

Vice President of Design
Enterprise Community Partners

Claire Weisz

FAIA · AIANY Medal of Honor

Principal · Founding Partner

Principal in Charge
WXY Architecture + Urban Design

Antonio García

Graphic Designer, Spain

Principal · Visual Communication

Founder, Antonio García Studio
University of Barcelona (Alumnus)

Carlos Fernández

European Design Awards · Pentawards

Principal · Creative Director

Creative Director
Saffron Brand Consultants, Madrid

Tier II · Regional Jury

The Regional Panel

Ten leading voices from the academic and practice communities of Europe, Asia, and the Americas — broadening the cultural range of the judging discourse.

Europe

From the continent of the competition's origin — curators, theorists, and designers shaping contemporary European discourse.

03 Jurors

🇮🇹

Prof. Matteo Ravelli

Academic

Head of Design Dept.
Politecnico di Milano

🇬🇧

Oliver Trent

Historian

Design Historian
Royal College of Art, London

🇳🇱

Anneke Van Der Meer

Curator

Curator of New Media
Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam

Asia

Voices from a rapidly evolving design discourse where tradition, technology, and new cultural identity coexist and contest.

04 Jurors

🇨🇳

Prof. Li Chengdong

Academic · Vice Dean

Academy of Arts & Design
Tsinghua University

🇨🇳

Dr. Chen Muyan

Academic · Professor

Central Academy of
Fine Arts (CAFA), Beijing

🇯🇵

Prof. Shinji Kurosawa

Academic · Chair

Tokyo University of the Arts
(Geidai)

🇰🇷

Dr. Min-Jae Park

Academic · Professor

KAIST Graduate School
of Industrial Design

Americas

Practitioners and theorists representing the plurality of design voices from New York to São Paulo.

03 Jurors

🇺🇸

Prof. Jonathan Wells

Academic · Chair

Chair of Graphic Design
Yale School of Art

🇨🇦

Marie Leblanc

Practitioner

Creative Director
Studio Leblanc, Montréal

🇧🇷

Dr. Rafael Souza

Critic & Editor

FAU-USP
University of São Paulo

Judging Mechanism

Three Rounds of Evaluation

International Blind Review

Every submission is anonymized. Evaluators assess each work on aesthetic merit, conceptual depth, and thematic response — without knowledge of the author's identity.

Principal Second Round

Shortlisted works advance to the Principal Jury's second round — where senior voices bring cross-regional perspectives to ensure rigor and cultural breadth.

Final Defense

Top finalists present their research and intent to the full jury. The Grand Master Awards emerge from this final deliberation — where work meets discourse.