Kulapat Yantrasast

Kulapat Yantrasast (born in Bangkok) is a Thai architect who is the founding partner and creative director of wHY, an interdisciplinary design studio with workshops of buildings, grounds, objects and ideas. The studio's unique area of expertise includes the vision, design and transformation of civic and cultural institutions with focus on community and creative sustainable mission, museum gallery installation, and exhibition designs. Yantrasast's studio designed the Grand Rapids Art Museum, which opened in October 2007, the first new art museum building in the world to receive the LEED certification (Gold).^[1] Yantrasast was named of the 100 Most Powerful People in the Art World by Art+Auction magazine in their 2012 Power 100 issue. ^[2]

Story

Yantrasast was born in Bangkok, Thailand, where he graduated with honors from Chulalongkorn University. He received his M.Arch. and Ph.D. degrees in Architecture from the University of Tokyo, under a Japanese Government scholarship.

From 1996 to 2003, Yantrasast worked as a close associate to famous Japanese architect Tadao Ando,^[3] responsible on international projects including the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Fort Worth, Texas (2002),^[4] Armani / Teatro in Milan, Italy (2001),^[5] Fondation Francois Pinault pour l’Art Contemporain in Paris, France (2001–2003),^[6] the Calder Museum project in Philadelphia, PA (1999–2002)^[7] and the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA (2001-ongoing)^[8] as well as international design competitions.

wHY continues to collaborate with Tadao Ando on a few selected projects.

Since 2005 Yantrasast has served on the Artists’ Committee of the Americans for the Arts, the nation’s oldest organization for support of the arts in the society.^[9]

Yantrasast lectures widely on creativity, food as well as architecture all over the world.^[10]

In 2009, Yantrasast received the Silpathorn Award for Design from Thailand's Ministry of Culture for outstanding achievement and notable contributions to Thai contemporary arts and culture. He is the first architect to receive the prestigious award.^[11]

wHY

Founded in 2003 as wHY Architecture, then shortened to wHY in 2012 to reflect the scope of work beyond architecture, wHY specializes in planning and designing civic and cultural institutions as social hubs and catalysts for their respective cities and communities. The studio's first major commission was completion of the Grand Rapids Art Museum (2007),^[12] the first new-build art museum in the world to receive a LEED Gold rating. Since 2005, wHY has been working on the master plan of gallery re-installation and design for the Art Institute of Chicago^[13] with multiple completed galleries – Galleries of European Decorative Arts, African and Arts of the Americas, Arms and Armor, Indian and Islamic, Japanese, American Folk Art, as well as Prints and Drawings, and ongoing design and construction. At Harvard Art Museums, wHY has been working closely with the Museum curators and staff as well as the design team, to design all the new galleries and art installation in the renovated and expanded museum building that will open to the public in 2014.^[14]

In Louisville, Kentucky, wHY has been working on the 250,000 sf renovation and expansion of the Speed Art Museum, the oldest and largest art museum in the commonwealth of Kentucky.^[15] wHY Architecture has also been working with a consortium of civic leaders, private developers, and urban planners to revitalize the historic Portland Warehouse District adjacent to Louisville, Kentucky. ^[16] In Texas, wHY is working on the Tyler Museum of Art a new cultural nucleus of the East Texas region. The new museum design aims to have a small footprint, leaving most of the site as parkland and meadow.

In addition to art museums, wHY Architecture designed important art spaces including the well acclaimed L&M Arts Gallery in Venice, California^[17] as well as the new David Kordansky Gallery in Hollywood. wHY also designed the Art Bridge – Interpretative Green Bridge at the Los Angeles River – a new pedestrian bridge and viewing station for the Great Wall of Los Angeles murals. The bridge is designed to reflect the relationship of people and the LA River, and will be made from trash and debris salvaged from the River itself.^[18]

wHY just completed the new Studio Art Hall for Pomona College in Claremont, CA. Since its opening, this open and flexible building has transformed the experience of the campus, serving as an activity hub for students as well as place for making and collaborating.

Recent commissions include The Feasibility and Masterplan for the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama (scheduled for completion in 2015), and reinventing the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple, a major Los Angeles historic structure, as a private museum for Maurice and Paul Marciano (scheduled for completion in 2016). ^[19]

Residences include many large-scale homes in Malibu, California, urban dwellings in Venice and Beverly Hills, and villas in Thailand's Chiangmai and Phuket cities as well as Osaka, Japan.

wHY's 4 workshops

In order to help clients capture the value design brings to all aspects the relationship between their endeavors and their physical environment, wHY is structured as 4 workshops that function as one team: Ideas (design research and strategy), Buildings (architecture), Objects (products and material explorations) and Grounds (landscape environments). Each workshop is directed by a leader, with their team's research and development infiltrating throughout all of wHY's projects. The workshops also collaborate on most wHY projects and also make inventive and delicious food and drinks.

why-site.com

Gallery

References

External links

• wHY website