STGK is a landscape design studio located in Yokohama, established by Gen Kumagai in 2009, where members from diverse backgrounds such as architecture, interior design, product design, landscape design, contemporary art, and graphic design, all participate in cross-disciplinary process.
We think of our work as creating the opening passage of a story beginning from wherever we work. The process begins when we encounter the site. This site may be a public space in the middle of a city or a small plot of land in a vast natural setting, an abandoned building or even a single sheet of paper.
As we come face to face with the site, we set about carefully gathering its various elements: its light or air, its human or natural community, its beauty and ugliness, the memories of its past. And from these elements, we create our design and weave the first passage of the story. As we live our lives on this planet, numerous landscapes are created and shaped as cumulative manifestations of our stories.
That is why we envision a landscape that is sustainable, precious, and worthy of being passed on to future generations, and realize it as the first verse of a new story that is about to begin. From this first verse, the activities of many people interacting with the location will weave and add further chapters to the story thus shaping the landscape.
In order to facilitate this process, we are not only engaged in conventional design work, but are also exploring a variety of approaches, including research into various questions that arise, holding workshops for forming communities, hosting events that would characterize the locations, running cafes and shared spaces, and producing picture books.