The the three members of the Pre-Selection Jury and its Chair are appointed by the Executive Board of the Finnish Association of Architects. The Pre-selecton Jury proposes 3-5 candidates, among which the Juror selects the winner of the Prize. The members of the Pre-Selection Jury are appointed for two terms.
Chairperson of the Pre-selection Jury
Architect and Artist Professor Sari Nieminen has designed schools and day-care centres that have featured in many publications and exhibitions. Her main works include Sakarinmäki school (Sipoo, 2005, FLN Architects), a school extension (Helsinki, 2014), an extension to Puistokoulu school (Jyväskylä, 2010) and the Ranta nursery (Helsinki, 1999). Nieminen has taught both architecture and interior architecture. She has won prizes in numerous competitions.
She has also served as a jury member for many architectural competitions and as an expert, and in positions of trust, for example, as a deputy member of the Copyright Council under the Ministry of Education and Culture, Member of the Administrative Board of the Museum of Finnish Architecture, the editorial board of the Finnish Architectural Review and an advisor for the Architectural Design Sub-committee of the City of Helsinki Building Control.
Architect Pirjo Sanaksenaho (b. 1966) is Professor of Building Design at the Department of Architecture of the Aalto University and heads the Research Institute for Health Care Facilities (SOTERA). She also partner at Sanaksenaho Architects together with Matti Sanaksenaho. The main works of the practice include Villa CIPEA in Nanjing, China, and St Henry Ecumenical Art Chapel in Turku and the extension of the Finnish Student Health Service building in Helsinki.
Sanaksenaho has also held several positions of trust in her field: she served as Member of the National Council for Architecture and Arts Council of Uusimaa in 2007–2009 and their Vice-Chair in 2010–2012 as well as Member of the Delegates Council of the Finnish Association of Architects.
Architect Eero Lundén FRSA (b.1982) runs an architectural office with a ten-strong team in Helsinki. His team is currently working on the design of a school campus in Pieksämäki and collaborating with the Danish-based COBE on the new station terminal in Tampere. in 2012, Lundén reived the Reima Pietilä Prize together with Toni Österlund. Lundén focuses on exploring the potential of new digital design methods in reshaping construction and architecture. Examples of his work include the timber pavilions in Turku and Shanghai and a sculpture created for the Venice Biennale. Lundén holds degrees in architecture from the University of Oulu and Columbia University in the City of New York. He has lectured and taught at architectural school both in Finland and abroad. Lundén is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Architects, UK.
Juulia Kauste (b. 1967) is director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture. During her period at the MFA since 2010 she has developed the organization with the main focus on the role of architecture in contemporary society. She is a sought-after speaker at numerous international professional conferences, and serves as a jury member or advisor for several architecture competitions and prizes.
She has served as a member of the board of the International Design Foundation 2010–2013 developing the city’s World Design Capital 2012 programme. She has been vice president of the Architecture Information Centre Finland since 2012 and a member of the National Council for Architecture and Design Finland 2010–2013.