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 Madrid and Lausanne, with outposts in Brussels, London and Paris.
The studio understands architecture in its full variety of scales, working in the field of product and furniture design, temporary architecture, interiors, building projects and territorial studies. A constant quest for innovation, 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 and currently at the EPFL School of Architecture in Lausanne and at the IE Architecture and Design School in Madrid/Segovia; and have 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 or LABoral art center Gijón. 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 and Studio Banana TV.
team of collaborators
Pablo Carrascal, product design team leader
Pablo is a Spanish product designer. He studied in Spain and Mexico and was researcher and academic assistant with kawamura-ganjavian at the European Design Labs 09. He is the leader of the product design team.
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. He currently runs the London office.
Sofie Liesenborghs, Brussels office
Sofie is a Belgian architect who studied in Belgium and Sweden before joining kawamura-ganjavian in Madrid in 2009. She was project leader of reference projects such as Librairie La Fontaine and the exhibition Process is Paradigm. She currently runs the Brussels office.
Mónica Mejía, Paris office
Mónica is a Colombian industrial and interior designer who studied in Colombia, USA and Spain. After founding her own design practice in Colombia in 2005 she joined kawamura-ganjavian in Madrid in 2009 and currently runs the Paris office.
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. She is running the Lausanne office.
Miriam Otero, Natalia Díez, Marine Vola, Dina Buneeva and Antoine Prokos
Previous collaborators of kawamura-ganjavian include Simon Baumgartner, Tony Berrio, Mónica Borondo, Daniel Duarte, Mikel Garate, Ivo Gigante, Adrien Goubet, Toño Guadarrama, Milos Jovanovic, Sarah Kang, Lu Lu, Ivann Ly, Fabio Molinas, Victor Ruben, Shin Sawada, Lilia Tsvetkova, Indra Vanhoenacker, Martina Polivkova, Pablo Santos and Agustín Zea. We are grateful to all of them for their participation in 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
Lin Davis, video documentation
Alfonso Herranz, photographer