Profile: Takuro Nakaya |
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This is your public profile, to edit it click here or view your hidden cabinet to modify or upload designs.About Takuro Nakaya : Takuro Nakaya is a spatial designer and art director based in Nagoya, Japan. He leads "shirokuma and company," a design office engaged in architecture, interiors, and visual design. His work ranges from café and clinic spaces to product packaging and illustrations, often integrating storytelling and regional identity. Nakaya has received international recognition including multiple iF Design Awards and Asia Design Prize honors. His practice emphasizes collaboration across disciplines and aims to create meaningful environments that resonate with daily life and memory.
STATEMENT OF ART:Design, for me, is the practice of giving form to memory, atmosphere, and human connection. It is not merely the arrangement of space or the styling of surfaces—it is a quiet architecture of experience, a subtle choreography of time, place, and presence. I believe design can hold emotion without shouting, and art can emerge from the everyday when we choose to see it.
Born and raised in Japan, I grew up in an environment where the vernacular and the sacred often coexist: the worn surface of an old coffee shop counter, the fading signage on a backstreet, the way morning light hits a tiled corridor. These ordinary moments are filled with hidden stories. My practice tries to amplify those stories, not by decoration, but by creating a setting where things can simply be seen, felt, and remembered.
I often think of architecture and design not as monuments to the future, but as instruments that frame the present. I work with modest materials, with craftsmen, and with constraints—not to be limited, but to find a deeper resonance. Texture, patina, light, and silence are part of my palette. I want to design places where one feels the passage of time, not as nostalgia, but as presence.
Art and design are not separate for me. Both ask: how shall we live? Art may not need a function, but good design must still carry meaning. In both, I seek clarity, restraint, and a sense of tension between the visible and the invisible. Sometimes, the most powerful thing in a room is what you choose to leave out.
My design approach is quiet but deliberate. I favor layers over loudness, ambiguity over perfection. I work closely with local communities and clients to find forms that speak to their place, their culture, and their pace. The goal is not to impress, but to belong—to create something that feels like it could have always been there.
In an era of noise, I believe in the power of stillness. In a world of speed, I choose slowness. That is where art lives for me. That is where design begins.
ORGANIZATION:
shirokuma and company
AWARDS:
2022, Shortlist, Japan Space Design Award, TOKYO/JAPAN
2023, Winner, iF Design Award, HANNOVER/GERMANY
2023, Shortlist, Japan Space Design Award, TOKYO/JAPAN
2024, Winner, iF Design Award, HANNOVER/GERMANY
2024, Gold Winner, Asia Design Prize, SEOUL/SOUTH KOREA
2025, Platinum Winner, London Design Awards, LONDON/UNITED KINGDOM
REGISTRATION DATE:
2025-05-28 00:16:31
COUNTRY/REGION:
Japan
ACCOUNT TYPE:
Professional
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