Thai architect Kulapat Yantrasast founded Why Architecture in 2004 with business partner Yo-Ichiro Hakomori. The firm has made its name designing museums and cultural institutions, including the Grand Rapids Art Museum in Michigan – the world’s first LEED Gold-certified art museum – and the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New York.
Yantrasast’s latest major project, Dib Bangkok, opened in December 2025. Housed in a repurposed warehouse, the museum combines simple forms and light-filled spaces with rough and polished materials such as exposed concrete, natural stone, wood, steel and polycarbonate. The result is both artful and dib – meaning “raw” or “authentic” in Thai – and encapsulates Yantrasast’s architectural philosophy.
Back home in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, his house speaks a similar architectural language. The orthogonal, three-storey block fronts the street but is curtained by tall plants. Exposed concrete, polycarbonate and glass make up the palette, while glass doors are almost never closed, letting in the Californian sunshine. Two guest rooms sit at ground level. Above them, the living, dining and kitchen areas rise into the treetops and open to the pool and garden. The second floor holds his bedroom, study and bathroom, where a sculptural steel washbasin counter is set against a matte wall of Nero Marquina marble from Spain. On the roof terrace, a polycarbonate box capping the staircase lights up like a beacon after sundown.