The Team
International Editor: Diana Biggs
Diana Biggs has served as design exchange magazine’s Editor since 2008. With a lifelong passion for design and communications, Diana involvements in these fields both professionally and personally have taken her to Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. She brings this passion to design exchange magazine, pushing the exploration of design to the next level and expanding the magazine’s global footprint. Prior to joining design exchange magazine, she worked in international communications for IIED and Cohn & Wolfe. Having studied in Canada, France, Germany, Austria and Mexico, Diana holds a Masters in Business from ESCP Europe and a B.Sc. in Architecture from McGill University.
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Robert Pike is a London based part 2 architectural assistant; co-founder and editor of the website Boidus.co.uk and a keen amateur photographer with the Muswell Hill Photography Society.
Robert holds a BA in Architecture from Plymouth University and PG Diploma from London South Bank University. His final year thesis project addressed his interest in sustainability and the city, with a yearlong study of the Thames Estuary focusing on the potential impact of sea level rise on the landscape. The final proposal sought an holistic urban plan that responded to this issue in pragmatic and economically viable manner. His final dissertation was entitled ‘Place, Memory, and Materials: A Study of the Work of Peter Zumthor’, and has continued in long fascination with the architect’s work.
Through the website Boidus – and now Design Exchange Magazine – Robert has commented on the world around him as he sees it and pays particular attention to the young and up and coming creative professionals and students making their mark in the creative industries. He is particularly interested in addressing issues in a critical way, and expanding a discourse along several lines of enquiry.
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Stuart Blakley is a freelance writer and photographer who has been published in a range of national and international magazines and newspapers over the last 17 years. His main interests are all things artistic but in particular, architecture and interior design. His blog allows him to comment personally on the new and the sublime as well as providing opportunities for overseas trips. Savannah, Georgia, was his latest expedition. Originally from Dublin, Stuart’s current project is a period conversion in Battersea. Stuart holds a 1st Class degree in Business Studies and a Masters in Town Planning. He is a Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute.www.stuartblakley.com
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Online Feature Editor: Maria Passarivaki
Maria Passarivaki is a freelance multimedia journalist based in Athens, Greece and a postgraduate of Cardiff University’s MA in International Journalism. She was born in Chania, Crete in 1986. Despite her initial studies in Linguistics, she decided to keep only the writer part and become a journalist instead. She is online, offline, and everywhere in-between. She is currently a contributor for Yatzer.com, OZON international, The Insider.grand and art communications assistant to Kunstahalle Athena. During her short professional career she has published features, reviews and interviews specialized in cultural and social issues as well as she has been involved in various cultural events in Greece. Lately, she developed this urge to explore the world through scandi design. She declares herself a citizen of the world and she hopes the heat of the Greek drama and cold of the British winter is not going to hitting her hard.
You can send her messages at: passarivaki@gmail.com or exchange visual findings here: http://totaleclipseofthemind.tumblr.com/archive
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Feature Editor: Masha Kuzmenko
Masha Kuzmenko is a freelance writer from London. She studied architecture at Edinburgh University. After graduating, she worked for a few architecture and interior design practices in Moscow and London. In the past she has contributed to Wallpaper and Architectural Review and Protein as a trends and insight journalist.
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Feature Editor: Lucas Gray 
Throughout his career Lucas Gray has focused on international architecture while living and practicing in various cities around the world. This includes spending a year in Bangkok, Thailand and two in Shanghai, China where he collaborated on competition entries for Brearely Architects and Urbanists. After his time in Asia Lucas returned to school, earning a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Oregon, while designing various retail environments as a freelance designer. He then moved to Berlin where he won an architectural design competition for extending and renovating an historic gymnasium. Along with developing the competition project, Lucas collaborated with various firms on the design and renovation of residential properties around Berlin, submitted international competition entries, and curated an art and architecture exhibition. Lucas currently lives in Portland, Oregon where he continues to pursue his passion for architectural design, and writes for various design magazines and websites. He has also the creator and editor of the architecture blog,
Architecture
Lucas’ architectural interest delves into the study of materiality, tectonics and how to introduce natural light into a building in innovative ways while being sensitive to the surrounding environment. This interest leads to a phenomenological approach to design, focusing on the experience of each user being a unique act in an ever-changing temporal existence. By using design to reveal seasonal and climactic change he strives to create an experience where people are aware of the unique aspects of each moment in the existence of a building. Like the artist Ned Kahn, Lucas uses the natural phenomena of wind, water and light to make dynamic architecture, where a static building becomes alive with movement. Incorporating plant life further visualizes temporal change as well as merges the building with the surrounding landscape, leading to sustainable architecture.
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Feature Editor: Rosemary Munro
Rosemary is a writer based in London. She has previously studied Architecture at Central St. Martins and is a recent English graduate at Goldsmiths University.
Past work includes features in an online fashion magazine and political articles in ‘The London Student’, as well as experience working for a busy news agency. Most recently, she has acted as PR and Communications Assistant for a design exhibition during the London Design Festival.
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Art Direction & Design: Yvette Chiu
Currently working as a designer for Thomson Reuters, Yvette Chiu joined design exchange magazine as our designer in October 2010. A graduate of the Graphic Arts program at the University of Southampton, Yvette’s previous experience includes working at the picture desk of INK Publishing and as a design intern at Tatler, both in Hong Kong.
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Web developer and Assistant Online Editor: Kingsley Man
A graduate of the BA New Media program at the University of Leeds, Kingsley is currently working as a Digital Development Associate at Time Out Hong Kong and as a freelance web developer.
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