ABOUT US
OUR COMMITMENT
We are an architecture and design studio founded in Kyoto, Japan, based in Zürich, Switzerland. We craft bespoke design solutions on a wide range of projects with clients seeking desired spaces.
We engage the project from a room with a garden to its interior, covering residential, cultural, and commercial buildings. Our East-West cultural roots, with past experiences in art, architecture, and landscape & garden, contribute to creating a borderless environment.
Our philosophy is to calibrate requirements and integrate our readings into timeless and unique environments by consciously creating ever-flowing spaces with a story to tell, regardless of project type or scale. We propose a scheme with concepts backed by choices of materials, proportions and indoor-outdoor relationships to strengthen the experience.
COLLABORATION
We work closely with the client to draw a scheme that can work spatially, functionally and, most importantly, emotionally. We collaborate alongside craftsmen, building masters, engineers, specialists, architects and landscaping professionals in the UK and Switzerland to ensure our envisioned scenery becomes realised. We provide our design services from Zürich, reaching out worldwide.
ART
We have a broad relationship with art, with long experience at Herzog & de Meuron and with Japanese contemporary artist Kohei Nawa. We work with galleries and private collectors who hold from pre-19th-century European masterpieces to contemporary art, engaging with artists' mindsets, values and time backgrounds, enabling us to craft an environment for their creativity.
LANDSCAPE & GARDEN
We see these as inseparable aspects in all of the projects. Our creative foundation is rooted in Kyoto's historical heritage. It has been at the base of early works when working on "Perez Art Museum, Miami" with Herzog & de Meuron and progressed further on "Kohtei" in Shinshoji Zen Museum and Gardens. "Chalk Garden", commissioned by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the United Kingdom, reflects our landscape philosophy.
JAPANESE GOODS
We want to help you import or locally produce Japanese elements to fit your environment. In the past, we imported Hinoki (Japanese cypress) bathtubs, Naguri flooring and many other goods. We are working with Japanese clay wall masters and value cross-cultural activity. We love contributing to East meets West ventures. Please get in touch with us for any enquiries.
Yuichi Kodai
Architect / Co-Founder
Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
Architecture Registration Board (ARB)
Born in Kyoto, Japan
He graduated from Architectural Association in London and collaborated with the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron. He was a core design team member of the Perez Art Museum, Miami as well as the TATE Modern execution team. He then founded the architecture department in the contemporary art studio SANDWICH Inc. in Kyoto where he completed KOHTEI, in Fukuyama City, Hiroshima. He then worked for HILDEBRAND Studios in Zurich. Together they completed GYRE GALLERY, in Omotesando, Tokyo before setting up kodai and associates in 2018.
Teachings:
- Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Visiting Assistant Professor
- Kyoto University of Art and Design
Architecture Course, Fine Art Course, Mix-media
- Kurashiki Art and Science University
Fine Arts Course
Earlier Projects:
Herzog & de Meuron, Basel & London
- Perez Art Museum Miami, Miami
- Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford
other international projects
Claudia Maggi
Architect / Co-Founder
Architecture Registration Board (ARB)
Born in Harrogate, United Kingdom
She graduated from Architectural Association in London and worked for the American practice Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) in London.
Her major achievement in the company was the Heron Tower, which she spent several years overseeing from the first design stage to the completion of the project, at the time the tallest skyscraper in London. She also worked on a number of high-rise and high-profiled confidential commercial projects developing a broad experience in all stages of work before setting up kodai and associates in 2018.
Earlier Projects:
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, London
- Vauxhall Tower, London
- Bishopsgate Tower, London
other confidential projects