Advisor

Yoko Kawai-Kurimoto, PhD

Principal, Lecturer, Yale, Penguin Environmental Design

Yoko Kawai’s mission is to create “space for well-being” by utilizing Japanese spatial concepts. By being rooted in the ephemeral relationship between space/nature and human beings, these concepts potentially contribute to healthy minds and bodies of people worldwide. She advocates this value of Japanese concepts through research, education, and practice. As a member of IWBI’s Task Force on COVID-19, she contributed significantly to the mind and movement sections.

Yoko is principal of Penguin Environmental Design in Connecticut, which focuses on incorporating landscape into architecture. In 2016, Yoko co-founded Mirai Work Space Alliance in New York. There, she and her colleagues bring “Space for Well-Being” to contemporary workplaces.

Yoko has been a lecturer at the Yale School of Architecture since 2010. Her research encompasses Japanese spatial concepts, space for well-being, and ICT influence on cities and architecture. She currently focuses on spatial interventions to increase mindfulness at work. Her recent publication includes “Blurring the self/space boundary to increase mindfulness: perspectives from Japanese architectural philosophy, neuroscience and psychology” (Kawai, Dufanny & Garrison, 2018).

Yoko received a B.Eng. in Architecture from Kyoto University, an M.Arch. in Urban Design from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. from Kobe University.

Organizations
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Penguin Environmental Design
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Yale School of Architecture
Location

Hamden, Connecticut

Advisories

  • Research

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