2026 ARCC-EAAE International Conference
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
LOCAL SOLUTIONS FOR GLOBAL ISSUES
April 8-11, 2026 I Atlanta I Hosted by Kennesaw State University
Conference Co-Chairs: Jeff Collins and Giovanni Loreto
ARCC is pleased to announce the distinguished Keynote Speakers for the Conference:
As Senior Partner at Safdie Architects, Jaron Lubin leads the design of some of the firm’s most ambitious urban-scale projects. His work reflects a commitment to architectural exploration, shaped by his experience with urban design and the integration of landscape and architecture in Singapore.
Over his career, Jaron has produced an extensive portfolio of technically rigorous competition entries, conceptual designs and realized projects, spanning an array of geographic contexts, scales and typologies. This work includes some of Safdie Architect’s most recognized achievements, including the Marina Bay Sands SkyPark, which redefined the skyscraper typology, and Jewel Changi Airport, an immersive civic and aviation experience that has set new standards for air transportation centers worldwide. His work also includes a continuous exploration of urban housing inspired by Safdie’s Habitat ’67, resulting in several realized projects integrating natural daylight, fresh air, and gardens; and many groundbreaking conceptual designs for a multitude of thought leaders such as Meta’s yet to be realized global headquarters.
Through lectures and critiques, Jaron advances Safdie Architects’ research and educational mission, drawing on the firm’s archives and his own nuanced understanding of architectural history. A recognized industry leader, he has co-led Architecture and Urban Design studios with Moshe Safdie at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) and lectured at institutions including his alma maters University of Michigan and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Representing the firm internationally through media, speaking, writing, and design juries, Jaron actively participates with organizations such as the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH).
Jaron earned his Master of Architecture with distinction from UCLA and graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan. He joined Safdie Architects in 2004, advancing to Principal in 2012 and Senior Partner in 2022.
Farrokh Derakhshani has served as Director of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture since 2006, and joined the organization in 1982. Educated in architecture and urban planning at the National University of Iran (1970-78) and later at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris, his early professional work included design and construction-management of large public infrastructure and architectural projects in Iran, France and Switzerland.
In his decades of leadership with the Aga Khan Award, Derakhshani has overseen the curatorial, operational and outreach dimensions of the program, which recognizes and promotes built-work that responds to both environmental and social challenges around the world. His role involves organizing exhibitions, international seminars and architectural competitions, as well as producing extensive publications and documentation of selected projects.
Derakhshani’s scholarship and practice reflect a sustained interest in architecture’s capability to engage with context, culture and community—focused not on style alone but on how built environments can adapt, contribute, and respond meaningfully to different geographies and ways of living. He has lectured
widely at over fifty universities globally, served on numerous juries and advisory committees, and advised on the establishment of graduate architecture schools in Africa and Asia.
For the ARCC community, Derakhshani brings a rare combination of leadership in architectural awards, global research outreach and educational advocacy. His work opens rich territory for the conference conversation around how awards, research and architecture interface across institutional, cultural and disciplinary boundaries.
Martha Thorne is an American architectural academic, curator, editor, author, and urbanist known for her significant contributions to the field of contemporary architecture. She held prominent roles including the Executive Director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize and the Dean of the IE School of Architecture and Design in Madrid, Spain. Currently, she works as Director of Strategic and Institutional Relations with Gallery Institute, an initiative that creates high quality documentaries on architecture, design, and cities. Every building and every professional has a story to tell. Through film, it is possible to communicate the complexities of the field to a broad audience. With over three decades of leadership in architecture-education, curatorial practice and international awards, she brings a global perspective on architecture’s role in research, pedagogy and built environment.
Earlier in her career (1996-2005) she was Associate Curator in the Department of Architecture at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she developed exhibitions, published research on digital design archives, and curated collections of design and architecture. Her academic credentials include a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Affairs from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and a Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania; she also pursued further studies at the London School of Economics.
Thorne has dedicated much of her work to re-thinking architecture education for the 21st century: focusing on cities in transition, expanding the architect’s role beyond the discipline’s traditional boundaries, and advocating for gender equity and inclusive design in the built environment. Through her leadership of the Pritzker Prize she has forged new dialogues between research, practice and pedagogy, and through her role at IE she has promoted entrepreneurial and alternative architectural practices, collaborative learning models, and global networks of design.
For the ARCC community, Thorne offers a rare blend of educator, curator and institutional leader whose work intersects awards, design research and architectural education. Her keynote promises to connect critical questions of recognition and scholarship with the evolving role of design in academia and the built environment.
Frank Barkow was born in Kansas City, USA, in 1957. He received his Master of Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in Cambridge in 1990, and his Bachelor of Architecture from Montana State University in Bozeman, USA, in 1982. Since 1993, he has led the architectural practice Barkow Leibinger in Berlin together with Regine Leibinger. Frank Barkow is both a design and research leader at the firm, and a dedicated academic.
He has taught continuously at institutions including Princeton University, School of Architecture; Harvard University, Graduate School of Design; the Architectural Association and the Royal College of Art in London; EPFL École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland; and the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design. He held visiting professorships at Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning in Ithaca, New York in 1990–1992 and 2003, and was appointed Gensler Visiting Critic there again in 2021. In spring 2023, he served as a Visiting Professor at Montana State University’s School of Architecture in Bozeman.
In 2018, he was a member of the International Jury of the 16th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, Italy, curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara.