O’More Brings Kulapat Yantrasast To Speak About Buildings that Create Communities
David Rosen, President, O’More College of Design
Named one of the art world’s 100 Most Powerful People, Kulapat Yantrasast, architect and designer of objects and landscapes, will visit Franklin and Nashville next week. On Monday, May 9, at noon at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Kulapat will present a free lunch-time lecture “THOUGHT FOR FOOD: How architecture can save a city one meal at a time.” He shows that when architecture mixes the right elements, like a good recipe, it creates a strong, healthy community. The event is sponsored by the Frist, The Nashville Civic Design Center, and O’More College of Design.
Born in Bangkok, Thailand, Kulapat received his M.Arch. and Ph.D. degrees in Architecture from the University of Tokyo and afterwards worked with Pritzker winner Tadao Ando. Ando invented an architectural practice called “critical regionalism” that aims at expressing the character of place. Ando’s work was in contrast to the faceless concrete towers of the International Style and the overly ornamental whimsicality of Postmodernism.
Kulapat has taken Ando’s ideas and added his own, founding wHY, a firm with offices in Los Angeles and New York that is structured around four areas – Ideas, Buildings, Objects, Grounds – with one cohesive team capable of taking on all aspects of a project, from the planning and landscape design to architecture and furniture.
wHY’s first independent work was the Grand Rapids Art Museum (below), which sits at the center of the city. The steps of the building meet a small park at the bottom. The museum and park have become the focal point for every major event the city holds. The place draws hundreds of thousands of people every year, with close to half a million coming during ArtPrize .
His most recent works include the renovation and reconceptualization of the Speed Museum in Louisville (below), which opened last month.
He also designed the interiors of the newly opened and critically acclaimed Harvard Museums, in collaboration with another Pritzker winner Renzo Piano (below).
Regarded as a new generation architect, Kulapat’s interdisciplinary approach to architecture and design has also been shaped and inspired by his passion for food and society.
The lecture on May 9 at noon at the Frist is free and open to the public. It will provide insights into what is possible for Nashville, Franklin and the surrounding regions as they experience growth that can create or kill community.
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