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. In 2007 Yantrasast's studio designed the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the first new art museum building in the world to receive the LEED certification (Gold).^[1] Yantrasast lectures on creativity, food, and architecture.^[2]

Background

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.

He is currently on the Board of Trustees of the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.^[3] 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.^[4]

Professional career

From 1996 to 2003, Yantrasast worked as a close associate to world-renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando,^[5] responsible on international projects including the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Fort Worth, Texas (2002),^[6] Armani / Teatro in Milan, Italy (2001),^[7] Fondation Francois Pinault pour l’Art Contemporain in Paris, France (2001–2003),^[8] the Calder Museum project in Philadelphia, PA (1999–2002)^[9] and the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA (2001-ongoing)^[10] as well as international design competitions.

Yantrasast founded wHY Architecture in 2003, later shortened to wHY. The studio's first major commission was completion of the Grand Rapids Art Museum (2007).^[11] 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 Architecture has been working with a consortium of civic leaders, private developers, and urban planners to revitalize the historic Portland Warehouse District adjacent to Louisville, Kentucky.^[12] Recent commissions include The Feasibility and Masterplan for the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama, and reinventing the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple, a major Los Angeles historic structure, as a private museum for Maurice and Paul Marciano.^[13]

Awards and recognition

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 was the first architect to receive the prestigious award.^[14]

Yantrasast was named of the 100 Most Powerful People in the Art World by Art+Auction magazine in their 2012 Power 100 issue.^[15]

Notable works

• Galleries at the Art Institute of Chicago ^[16][17]
• Grand Rapids Art Museum (2007)
• L&M Arts Gallery^[18] (2010)
• David Kordansky Gallery^[19] (2014)
• Studio Art Hall, Pomona College^[20] (2014)
• Galleries at the Harvard Art Museum^[21] (2015)
• Walkway at the Worcester Art Museum^[22] (2015)
• Speed Art Museum (2016)
• Interpretative Green Bridge at the Los Angeles River^[23]

Gallery

References

External links

• wHY website