Yoko Kawai

Yoko Kawai’s mission is to create “space for well-being” by utilizing Japanese spatial concepts. By being rooted in the ephemeral relationship between space/nature and human beings, these concepts potentially contribute to healthy minds and bodies of people worldwide. She advocates this value of Japanese concepts through research, education, and practice.

Yoko is principal of Penguin Environmental Design in Connecticut, which focuses on incorporating landscape into architecture. In 2016, Yoko co-founded Mirai Work Space Alliance in New York. There, she and her colleagues bring “Space for Well-Being” to contemporary workplaces.

Yoko has been a lecturer at the Yale School of Architecture since 2010. Her research encompasses Japanese spatial concepts, space for well-being, and ICT influence on cities and architecture. She currently focuses on spatial interventions to increase mindfulness at work. She is a co-editor of Handbook of Flourishing by Design: Health and Wellbeing in (Un)Conventional Workplaces, to be published in 2027 by Routledge. She serves on the Research Advisory for the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI). With her fellow advisors, she recently co-authored “Developing a transdisciplinary and adaptive framework to measure health and well-being for the workplace: the 12 competencies” (Loder et al. 2025).

Yoko received a B.Eng. in Architecture from Kyoto University, an M.Arch. in Urban Design from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. from Kobe University.