Kazumasa is an architect, artist and educator, and co-founder of PAN-PROJECTS, working across architecture, art, installation and spatial practice between the UK, Europe and Japan.
Kazumasa Takada is a London-based architect, artist and educator. He teaches on the MA Interior Design programme within the superReuse unit, where his teaching focuses on material cultures, experimental reuse as a situated cultural practice.
He is co-founder of PAN-PROJECTS, an art and architectural design studio whose work spans diverse scales related to spatial practices. The studio’s practice has developed through work across the UK, Europe and Japan, with projects and installations exhibited internationally. His work often sits between architectural practice and contemporary material cultures, and has been recognised internationally, including being shortlisted for RIBA Rising Star Awards 2025.
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Research interests
Kazumasa’s research explores how architectural and spatial practices can emerge from existing material, social and cultural conditions rather than abstract ideals. His work focuses on reuse, by-products and overlooked material cultures, examining how materials carry histories of labour, environment and community.
A central strand of this research is Architecture of By-products, a long-term inquiry developed through PAN-PROJECTS that investigates how waste materials embedded in architectural tradition, from textile remnants to industrial surplus, can be reimagined as active agents in contemporary design. Through projects such as Entwined Matters, mum, and large-scale installations and spatial works, this research examines how making itself can become a critical and narrative act.
He has also led an interdisciplinary research collaboration with Sony CSL exploring neuro-architecture, examining how spatial environments relate to perception, cognition and neurodiversity. Across both teaching and research, his interest lies in positioning design as a reflective and critical practice, supporting emerging designers in developing approaches grounded in observation, experimentation and cultural awareness.
Practice
Kazumasa is co-founder of PAN-PROJECTS, an art and architecture studio established in 2017 and based in London. The practice works across architectural design, installation, exhibition and spatial practice, engaging with projects that range from permanent buildings to temporary structures, cultural commissions and research-led works.
PAN- PROJECTS approaches each project as an art of fabrication: an assemblage of material, memory and space developed through close collaboration with makers, communities and clients. A recurring strand of the studio’s work is Architecture of By-products, a series of research-led projects exploring how waste and overlooked materials such as textile off-cuts, ocean plastics, ash-infused bricks or rice straw — can become carriers of cultural memory and new spatial meaning.
The studio’s work has been realised across the UK, Europe and Japan, with projects and installations exhibited internationally at institutions and cultural platforms including the Venice Biennale, Milan Design Week, DesignArt Tokyo, House of Architecture Graz, and the National Art Center, Tokyo. Alongside built and exhibited work, PAN-PROJECTS regularly contributes to lectures, publications and cross-disciplinary collaborations, positioning the practice between architectural production, artistic experimentation and cultural discourse.
Awards
Shortlisted, RIBA Rising Star, 2025
Good Design Award, Japan, 2024
Honourable Mention, Young European Architects, Venice Biennale, 2021
Longlisted, Dezeen Awards, Emerging Architecture Studio of the Year, 2021
1st Prize, CHART Architecture Award, Copenhagen Art Fair, 2017 (Paper Pavilion)
External collaborations and activities
(2025) Guest Speaker, Future Materials Conference, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME), Budapest
(2024) Lecturer, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
(2023) Speaker, Silpakorn International Conference on Total Art & Science
(2022) Speaker, New Generations Festival, Royal Academy of Spain in Rome
(2022) Speaker, Young Architects Festival, Santiago de Chile (MoMA-affiliated)
(2021) Lecturer, Tokyo University of Science
(2018 – ) Exhibitor / contributor to international exhibitions including Venice Biennale, Milan Design Week, DesignArt Tokyo, House of Architecture Graz