Astrid Klein

Born in Varese, Italy, and a graduate of the Royal College of Art, London, Astrid moved to Japan in the late 1980s. After working with Toyo Ito, she established Klein Dytham architecture (KDa) in Tokyo with Mark Dytham. KDa has won American Retail Environment Awards, D&AD Awards, World Architecture Festival Awards, Wallpaper* Design Awards, Dezeen Awards, and The Design for Asia Grand Prize three times. Many of its works are city landmarks, including Daikanyama T-SITE (2011), Ginza Place (2016), Open House (Bangkok, 2017) and Cartier Facade Osaka (2021). An internationally in-demand event speaker, Astrid also teaches at Musashino Art University and Toyo Ito’s Architecture School for Kids. She is a board member of NPO HOME-FOR-ALL, an initiative to build community hubs in disaster-hit areas of Japan, and a co-founder of Tokyo’s DESIGNART festival. Other achievements include PechaKucha, an event platform and network initiated by Astrid and Mark for creative people to share their work, which now hosts presentations in over 1,200 cities worldwide.