kawamura-ganjavian
kawamura-ganjavian is an architecture and design studio founded in 2000 by Key Portilla-Kawamura and Ali Ganjavian. Having met in London in the late 1990's, they worked in India, USA, Japan, Great Britain and Switzerland. The studio was established in London and is currently based in Lausanne and Madrid .
The studio understands architecture in its full variety of scales, working in the field of product and furniture design, ephemeral architecture, interiors, building projects and territorial studies. A constant quest for ingeniosity and comfort is the common thread through this wide repertoire of projects.
kawamura-ganjavian have taught at the Istituto Europeo di Design, the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, the IE Architecture and Design School in Madrid/Segovia, the EPFL School of Architecture in Lausanne and currently are co-leading the elop transdisciplinary Master programme at the Bern University of Applied Sciences.
The studio has participated internationally in exhibitions, workshops and conferences in prestigious institutions such as MoMA New York, la Triennale di Milano, Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella, Tokyo Designers Week, Boisbuchet Summer Workshops, Strelka Institute Moscow, Stanford University or Guggenheim Bilbao. Work by the studio has been awarded internationally and published in magazines and books globally.
kawamura-ganjaian are founding members of the multidisciplinary creative platform Studio Banana, Studio Banana TV and Studio Banana Things.
partnerships
Patricia Guaita
Patricia is a Spanish-Swiss architect. After studying at the ETSAM school in Madrid she led reconstruction projects in Bosnia-Herzegovina and worked in architectural practices in Switzerland. She is currently team and curricular coordinator of the ALICE 1st year laboratory at the EPFL school in Lausanne and develops projects in partnership with kawamura-ganjavian in Switzerland.
team of collaborators
Maki Portilla Kawamura, architecture team leader
Maki is a Spanish-Japanese architect who studied at the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. After working in Barcelona and Basel (Switzerland) for 5 years she joined kawamura-ganjavian in 2009. She is the leader of the architecture team.
Amir Afshar, London office
Amir is a British-Iranian architectural collaborator who has studied at the London Metropolitan University. He joined kawamura-ganjavian in 2009, participating in the award-winning project for a bridge in Lisbon.
Cornelia Tapparelli, Lausanne office
Cornelia is a Swiss-Italian architect who studied at the Accademia di Mendrisio, EPFL Lausanne and ETH Zürich. She is currently a researcher and PhD candidate at the EPFL school in Lausanne.
Natalia Díez, Susana Blazquez, Victoria Gomez Egea and Ana Huerta.
Previous collaborators of kawamura-ganjavian include Amir Afshar, Simon Baumgartner, Tony Berrio, Mónica Borondo, Dina Buneeva, Carla Deshayes, Daniel Duarte, Mikel Garate, Ivo Gigante, Adrien Goubet, Toño Guadarrama, Milos Jovanovic, Sarah Kang, Sofie Liesenborghs, Lu Lu, Ivann Ly, Fabio Molinas, Leonardo Morris, Miriam Otero, Antoine Prokos, Victor Ruben, Pablo Santos, Shin Sawada, Lilia Tsvetkova, Indra Vanhoenacker, Marine Vola, Martina von Polivkova and Agustín Zea. We are grateful to all of them for their valuable contribution to the studio.
kawamura-ganjavian often collaborates with other professionals and agencies in multidisciplinary projects. We are grateful for their expertise in different fields with which we dialogue, from graphic communication or video production to engineering and strategic innovation:
Studio Banana, multidisplinary creative platform
Plan B, graphic communication
ARUP, engineering
Ludic Group, creative consultancy
Alfonso Herranz, photographer