bios
SHASHI CAAN
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Co-Founder + President, GloW-DESIGN
Practitioner, THE COLLECTIVE
Former Chair of Interiors, Parsons School of Design
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(INDIA/USA/UK)
Shashi Caan is a distinguished thought leader for architectural design internationally. As a practitioner, design futurist, educator and author, her dedication to furthering human betterment through and by design is reflected in her 25-year design career.
She was formerly senior Designer with Gensler and then Design Director and Associate Partner with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, in New York. In 2002, she started and remains a founding partner of her innovatively structured firm, THE COLLECTIVE. Bridging world creativity through collaboration, Shashi Caan is a founding member and the president of GloW-DESIGN (Globally We Design).
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She is the 2004 U.S. Designer of the Year, was granted the 2012 Golden Seat Architectural Master Award of China, and in 2013, she was appointed the JDP Design Ambassador to Japan. With her service on numerous industry and professional Board of Directors, she was one of 3, two-term Presidents of the distinguished International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers (IFI), a service which furthered the impact of Interior Architecture/ Design across the world. For this work, she was recognized and honored by IFI as a Fellow of the IFI (FoIFI). Continuing to work with IFI, in November 2017, she was appointed IFI’s CEO.
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A sought-after public speaker, Shashi Caan participates in design juries, panel discussions, workshops and lectures around the world.
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As recognition of her international impact, she has been bestowed honorary fellowships in the UK, Australia, Latin America and the US and conferred an honorary doctorate from the NY School of Interior Design. She is the author of the seminal book, Rethinking Design and Interiors: Human Beings in the Built Environment. This important book has also been translated into Chinese.
IAN PIRIE
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ReDesignEd Forum Chairperson
Emeritus Professor of Design, University of Edinburgh
Education Advisor
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(SCOTLAND)
Ian Pirie is Emeritus Professor of Design at the University of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy UK. A full-time educator since 1980, his work has been in designing and leading the development of innovative programmes of study in and across Art, Design, Architecture, Business,
Computing and Engineering. He is internationally known as an examiner, quality assurance reviewer and education advisor with work being undertaken in East & Southern Asia and Oceania in addition to UK and EU institutions.
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His research has explored the use of emerging digital technologies in both Design practice and in supporting specific pedagogical approaches in Education. During the past decade and more he has led and worked on numerous online developments in support of student learning and specifically in the areas of assessment and feedback at the Robert Gordon University in eLearning; 'Insight Out Learning' for the teaching of entrepreneurship with Glasgow School of Art; chairing the development team of the national portal for the Crafts for the Scottish Arts Council; the innovative developments in assessment and feedback at Edinburgh College of Art where he was Assistant Principal for Learning and Teaching and most recently the online suite of tools to support personal tutoring, academic guidance and support at the University of Edinburgh. He is currently leading the development of the ‘SLICCs’ self-designed learning experiences that will enable students at the University of Edinburgh to design aspects of their own learning for credit and is also working with the Royal Conservatoire Scotland to develop a new approach to assessment and feedback in the performing arts.