The Interior Designers of Canada’s fourth annual Value of Design Awards (VODA) celebrates the best in Canadian interior design, highlighting innovative, purpose-driven spaces that are beneficial to the client.
This year’s judges represent a diverse cross-section of the design industry, from interior designers and architects to educators and lifelong advocates in the industry.
Jennifer Busch, Director, Client Partnerships, Eventscape
Jennifer Busch is an accomplished design industry executive focused on the value of intelligent design strategies for commercial and institutional enterprises with real business goals. Her professional history includes her current position as Director, Client Partnerships at Eventscape, a Toronto-based fabricator of high-end custom architectural features, where she is responsible for developing new business opportunities in the New York market and beyond. Prior to Eventscape, Jennifer held highly visible roles at Toronto-based office furniture manufacturer Teknion, as Vice President A&D; at Atlanta-based flooring manufacturer Interface Carpet, as Vice President A&D Market Development; and at New York-based Contract magazine, where she served on the editorial team for 21 years, including 11 years as Editor in Chief. Throughout her career, Jennifer has cultivated and managed meaningful business relationships with major commercial architecture and interior design firms around the world.
Johnson Chou, Principal, Johnson Chou Inc.
Founded in 2001, Johnson Chou Inc. is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary design practice encompassing architecture and interiors, furniture, and strategic branding.
Chou’s passion for instilling narrative and metaphor into his work includes award-winning projects for Red Bull Canada, Grip Limited, Mosaic Chicago, Sixty Colborne Presentation Centre, and Global Furniture Group showroom in Toronto.
A graduate of the University of Waterloo School of Architecture, Chou’s support of the visual arts and design community has included roles as vice-president of the RCA and past board member and designer of the original MOCA located on Queen West. He has juried several national and international awards, lectured widely, and is a design critic at various schools including Ryerson University. In 2012 Chou was the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Lois Weinthal, Chair of the School of Interior Design at Ryerson University
Lois Weinthal is Chair of the School of Interior Design at Ryerson University. Her research and practice investigate the relationship between architecture, interiors, clothing, and objects, resulting in works that take on an experimental nature. Her teaching explores these topics where theoretical discussions in seminars are put into practice in the design studio. She is the editor of Toward a New Interior: An Anthology of Interior Design Theory, co-editor of After Taste: Expanded Practice in Interior Design, and co-editor of The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design. She studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design. She currently holds the position of Honorary Professor at the Glasgow School of Art.
The deadline to submit VODA entries is April 30, 2021. For more information on eligibility requirements, award criteria, submissions, and to view 2020 winners, click here.
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