
Kulapat Yantrasast
Founder & Creative Director
WHY Architecture · United States
Kulapat Yantrasast is the founder and creative director of WHY Architecture, an internationally recognised practice dedicated to the design of cultural institutions.
His recent work includes the transformation of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, the Dib Contemporary Art Center in Bangkok, and the ilmi Science Discovery & Innovation Center in Riyadh. WHY has been selected by the Musée du Louvre to design its new Department of Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art, and is currently leading the design of the National Museum of India in New Delhi—projected to become the largest museum in the world.
Raised in Bangkok and educated at the University of Tokyo, Yantrasast approaches each project as an act of cultural translation—creating spaces where architecture, memory, and human experience converge.
He is the recipient of Thailand's Silpathorn Award and serves on the boards of the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and The Noguchi Museum.
"Inspiration often comes from conversations with great minds. I love asking questions and listening and interviewing; these give me joy and food for thought. My work really grows and emerges from my thinking and living, and they grow from conversations." -- Kulapat Yantrasast on Design in Dialogue: Connect + Transform











