Takaya Kurimoto

Takaya Kurimoto is a Japanese garden designer and a registered landscape architect in the United States. He explores the ways in which Japanese gardens contribute to people who need mindfulness and healing. He began studying the philosophy and history of Japanese gardens early in his career at Kyoto University in Japan and later earned a Master of Landscape Architecture from Cornell University. He also shared this expertise as a lecturer on East Asian landscapes at Yale University.

As a principal of Penguin Environmental Design (PED), Takaya focuses on residential and small-scale landscape projects. His first Japanese garden project was a set of stone gardens for the “Tea Culture of Japan” exhibition held at the Yale Art Gallery (2009). Since then, he has designed various Japanese gardens, including a Japanese dry garden at the Friendship House in Frost Valley YMCA (2014). Prior to joining PED, Takaya was a landscape architect at Towers|Golde. His major works there include the Yale University Pierson & Davenport College courtyard renovations, which received an Honor Award from the CT chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. While much of his work during this period involved university and commercial projects, his involvement in the Smilow Cancer Hospital healing garden project provided a vital opportunity to connect the principles of healing gardens with his roots in Japanese design.

Before his move to the United States, he designed landscapes for commercial buildings and worked on many community-scale projects at Konoike Construction Co., Ltd. in Japan.