The Best Interior Designers and Architects in Tokyo – Part 1

The Best Interior Designers and Architects in Tokyo – Part 1 ⇒ Japan has always been the country to look out for innovation. It is amazing in how a city (Tokyo), where 10 million people live can be so clean, organized and developed as it is. That happens thanks to smart architecture and interior design. Tokyo, over the past few years, has been a beacon for design and architecture a bit all over the world. Bearing this in mind, Room Decor Ideas Decided to do a bit top best interior designers and architects in Tokyo in a two-act play. Here’s the 1st part.

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Atsushi Kitagawara

The Kitagawara Thermal Architecture Research Institute was founded in 1980 by Kitakawahara Thermal and reorganized into a corporation in 1982 and began full-scale design work. Shibuya’s cinema building Rise, completed in 1986, was noted for its creative design, and many visitors from overseas visited.

Exhibited with Tadao Ando and Toyo Ito each time at the “Contemporary Architects of Japan” held at GA Gallery since 1988, and has been introduced with Kenzo Tange and Shinozaki Akira in the complete works “Primary Japanese Art” (Shogakukan). Many of his works have been published in Japan’s most well-known speciality magazine “New Architecture”, and works have been introduced to media in various countries, such as decorating the cover of “ARCHITECTURAL RECORD” magazine in the United States. In 1992, an international edition of the new architecture, JAPAN ARCHITECT’s special feature edition of Kitakawahara, was published.

Arata Isozaki

The architect established Arata Ozaki & Associates in 1963, after the allied occupation when Japan had regained its sovereignty and was seeking physical rebuilding amidst political, economic and cultural uncertainty from the decimation of WWII.

The 2019 Pritzker prize has been awarded to Arata Isozaki, the Japanese architect, city planner and theorist. Isozaki graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1954 and began his career with an apprenticeship under 1987 Pritzker laureate Kenzo Tange.

Toyo Ito

Toyo Ito ( born 1 June 1941) is a Japanese architect known for creating conceptual architecture, in which he seeks to simultaneously express the physical and virtual worlds. He is a leading exponent of architecture that addresses the contemporary notion of a “simulated” city, and has been called “one of the world’s most innovative and influential architects.” In 2013, Ito was awarded the Pritzker Prize, one of architecture’s most prestigious prizes. He was a likely front-runner for the Pritzker Prize for the previous 10 years.

After working for Kiyonori Kikutake Architect and Associates from 1965 to 1969 (alongside Itsuko Hasegawa), in 1971 he started his own studio in Tokyo, named Urbot (“Urban Robot”). In 1979, the studio name was changed to Toyo Ito & Associates. Throughout his early career, Ito constructed numerous private house projects that expressed aspects of urban life in Japan. His most remarkable early conceptual contributions were made through projects of this scale, such as White U (1976) and Silver Hut (1984). Toyo Ito’s office is known as a training ground for talented younger architects. Architects who previously worked for his office include Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA), Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham (KDa), Katsuya Fukushima, Makoto Yokomizo, and Akihisa Hirata.

Shigeru Ban

Shigeru Ban ( born 5 August 1957) is a Japanese architect, known for his innovative work with paper, particularly recycled cardboard tubes used to quickly and efficiently house disaster victims. He was profiled by Time magazine in their projection of 21st-century innovators in the field of architecture and design.

Recently, Shigeru Ban Architects have been selected to a new 420-acre campus for the owners of Kentucky Owl Bourbon just south of Louisville, Kentucky. The new project will convert the former Cedar Creek Quarry into a distillery, bottling centre, and rickhouses. Working with landscape architects Design Workshop from Denver and Earthscape from Tokyo, the $150 million projects will be built with three timber pyramids housing the distillery at the centre of the development. The new plans come after Stoli Group purchased the Kentucky Owl brand in 2017.

Gwenael Nicolas – Curiosity

CURIOSITY is a multidisciplinary studio based in Tokyo, created by French designer Gwenael Nicolas. The studio is constantly redefining the boundary of design, from interior design to architecture and product design. Not in an abstract way but realistically by collaborating with a large spectrum of companies and clients, to create new products, develop new materials and define new design identities.

The characteristics of curiosity design are translucency, emotional colouring and attractive forms. It is only when you come to use the products or encounter the space that you realize the designs are not just about superficial beauty but that considerable thought as also gone into their functionality. The design originates from a storyboard with people as the central focus, then he incorporates an element of discovery and unpredictability in the design. The design approach of Curiosity makes them one of a kind.

SANAA

SANAA (Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates) is a multiple award-winning architectural firm based in Tokyo, Japan. It was founded in 1995 by architects Kazuyo Sejima (1956–) and Ryue Nishizawa (1966–), who was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2010. Notable works include the Toledo Museum of Art’s Glass Pavilion in Toledo, Ohio; the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York; the Rolex Learning Center at the EPFL in Lausanne; the Serpentine Pavilion in London; the Christian Dior Building in Omotesandō, Tokyo; the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa; and the Louvre-Lens Museum in France.

Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa founded SANAA in 1995. They later won the Golden Lion in 2004 for the most significant work in the Ninth International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. In 2010, they were awarded the Pritzker Prize, which made Sejima the second female to win this prize.

Ryoji Iedokoro

At the office, Ryoji Iedokoro constantly strives to help people realize the importance of architecture through his unique and innovative designs. By combining everyday objects and new approaches the studio takes the spaces central to our day to day lives to a completely new level.

One of his most famous projects is Premium yakiniku restaurant. The first floor features a long table in a cave-like setting. The second floor features semi-private floor seating with steel pipes mimicking trees acting as unobtrusive partitions. Completely different from conventional yakiniku restaurants, it’s as if you’re enjoying your meal in the middle of a quiet forest.

Steve Leach

Steve Leach Group moved beyond just being the most established Interior Design Consultancy firm in East Asia and increased their service offering with new expertise areas and partnerships to provide you with holistic answers. As a team they create award-winning projects in interior, architectural and sustainable design that provide a fresh approach to each challenge.

The group sees design as an experience. The creation of an environment that has the ability to influence user interaction, productivity, effectiveness and comfort is their standard of practice. The Team’s understanding of how users interact with their surroundings and how providing an effective environment can help the partners get the most from their space allows them to provide a platform for them to achieve their goals.