In Los Angeles, the eccentric Kulapat Yantrasast embodies the city of all possibilities

2023-08-12 20:00:03
Find all the episodes of the series “Los Angeles, an architect’s dream” here.

“What makes you happy?” » This is the first question that the architect Kulapat Yantrasast will ask you if you order a house from him. A way of creating a surprise, of suggesting to the client that anything is possible, that we are going to make him tailor-made – the house of his dreams. Born in Bangkok, Thailand, fifty-five years ago, trained in Japan, at the University of Tokyo then with the grand master Tadao Ando, ​​arrived in Los Angeles to open his agency which he calls WHY, Kulapat Yantrasast does nothing like everyone else.

Ce “globalized nomad without roots”, as he defines himself, is a creature of a somewhat new kind which has found in Los Angeles the ideal soil to engender itself. Architect guru, brilliant communicator, international jet-setter, we spot him by his explosive style, a unique way of combining fitted black suits and hypertrophied red sneakers, of going from oversized djellaba to couture overalls, of masking a frontal gulf by a layer of silver make-up…

During the Frieze contemporary art fair in Los Angeles, for which he designs the reception pavilion each year – in February, it was held at the Santa Monica airport – he pulls out all the stops: high-heeled platforms 15 centimeters at the feet, blue-white-red cape with wide stripes thrown over a satiny orange jumpsuit torn at the knee. This is how he appeared to us in his agency in Culver City, a town adjoining Los Angeles: a creature of Star Wars dressed in glamrock fashion.

Kulapat Yantrasast, at the premises of the WHY agency, in Culver City (California), on July 26, 2023. SINNA NASSERI FOR “THE WORLD”

In two decades, this son of an engineer and a teacher has become the darling of the art world in Los Angeles. Everyone knows Kulapat Yantrasast. Everyone calls him by his first name. In July, he appeared alongside Seth Rogen, Pharrell Williams, Marc Jacobs, Philip Glass, David Lynch, Rihanna, Lil Nas X, Kim Gordon and Julianne Moore in a special issue of the magazine Wallpaper devoted to “Three Hundred Funniest Creative Minds in America”.

Museums are snapping it up

Kulapat Yantrasast is a big fan of Frank Gehry. He follows in his footsteps. If the old architect, 94 years old this year, is famous today for his museums with maddening architectures, if he has become a symbol of Los Angeles, it is because he tied very young, from university, strong relationships with artists of his generation, and that he accompanied them as they became famous. Their notoriety, in a way, nourished his own.

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