Mr Takeshi Hayatsu

I am a Senior Lecturer teaching postgraduate architecture studio at Kingston University. I combine teaching, research, and practice seamlessly, with a particular emphasis on local production and community engagement through making and construction. My 13 years of collaborative teaching practice were showcased in a solo exhibition, Under Construction: Takeshi Hayatsu & Collaborators, at the Stanley Picker Gallery in 2024, which was selected by The Guardian as one of the ten best design events in its Design Highlights 2024.

Previously, I taught an MArch unit and a construction course at Central Saint Martins (2015–2019), and led a live-build programme for the Interior and Spatial Design course at Chelsea College of Arts (2014–2016). I have lectured at universities and cultural institutions worldwide, including the University of Cambridge, the Bartlett, the Architectural Association, London Metropolitan University, the University of East London, RWTH Aachen University, the University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne, EPFL, Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, the Oslo Association of Architects, Archipel Librairie Lyon, the Architecture Foundation London, Somerset House, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and RIBA.

I am currently an external examiner for the MArch course at the University of Westminster and conduct annual experimental building workshops in Japan and the UK with Grizedale Arts.

I am a Japanese architect based in London and the founding director of Hayatsu Architects. I studied architecture at Musashino Art University in Tokyo and at the Architectural Association in London. Before establishing my own practice in 2017, I worked at David Chipperfield Architects, Haworth Tompkins, and 6a architects. Through extensive experience working with historic buildings, the practice has developed a unique insight into creating innovative and engaging spaces that integrate seamlessly with their historic contexts through carefully crafted material interventions and hands-on construction methods.

Hayatsu Architects work across both private and public sectors, with a focus on arts, heritage, and community participation. Our portfolio includes temporary and permanent exhibitions, the refurbishment of historic buildings, and the design of new public parks and squares. The practice was included in the Architecture Foundation’s New Architects 4(2021) as one of the UK’s emerging practices and was listed in Wallpaper magazine’s Architects’ Directory 2022 of exciting emerging studios. Our work has been published internationally, including in Casabella (Italy) and Superposition(Switzerland). In 2024, our Cold Food Store project in the Lake District won the Architects’ Journal Small Project Award and was listed by Dezeen as one of the UK’s top ten architecture projects of the year.

Hayatsu Architects are currently part of the Greater London Authority’s Architecture and Urbanism Framework for town centre recovery, landscape, and the public realm. I am also a member of the Design Review Panel at Harrow Council.

Exhibition & symposium

• Exhibition at Stanley Picker Gallery ‘Under Construction: Takeshi Hayatsu and Collaborators’, 2024
• Kingston School of Art Register Seminar ‘Slow Architecture’ with Shin Egashira and Tom Emerson chaired by Andrew Clancy, 2024
• ‘Hana Mikoshi’ installation at Victoria & Albert Museum South Kensington for London Design Festival, 2023
• Kingston School of Art Register Seminar ‘RSR Fitter’s London’s Natural History’ with Alastair Fitter, Irenee Scalbert and Tom Emerson, 2021
• Group exhibition ‘Joy For Ever’ at Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, 2019 
• RIBA Architecture Gallery ‘Making It Happen: New Community Architecture’, 2019
• Group exhibition ‘The Land We Live In – The Land We Left Behind’ at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, 2018
• Architecture exhibition at Barbican Centre ‘The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945’, 2017
• Symposium at Dorich House Museum ‘Japanese Avant Garde Red School and UK contemporary crafts’, 2016
• Kintaikyo - Building a Japanese Bridge, Embassy of Japan UK, 2012

• BA
• AA Dipl
• ARB
• RIBA
• KAPS Teaching Fellowship