The New York Times interviews Kulapat Yantrasast

[…] Growing up in Bangkok, Mr. Yantrasast was making drawings alongside his engineer father by the time he was in the sixth grade. After graduate school at the University of Tokyo, he went to work with the Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Tadao Ando for eight years.

Like Mr. Ando, Mr. Yantrasast has a penchant for the power of concrete, but he has established a distinct style: decidedly modern, but with openness and warmth.

“I love minimalism and the strong gesture as much anyone, but sometimes when you do that it’s more exclusive than inclusive — only for the select few,” he said.

Mr. Yantrasast has a passion for food, and he elaborated on his approach with a cuisine metaphor related to his roots.

“Japanese food is all about refinement, abstraction clarity,” he said. “Thai food is about everything at once — flexibility and improvisation. I really think the world of architecture and design is moving from Japanese food to Thai food.” […]

-Ted Loos