What is your name, current location, and current occupation?
Geoffrey P. Moussas
Kyoto, Japan
Architectural designer, professor, exhibitor, collaborator.
What was your affiliation with MIT?
M. Arch., 1993
What was your thesis title, if you completed one?
Experience of House as an Illusion of Stability
What are you doing today?
Geoffrey is a Kyoto-based architect who has lived in Japan since 1994. He came to Japan to work for Fumihiko Maki (MIT Media Lab addition, 4 World Trade Center architect) as well as Yoshio Taniguchi to work on the MoMA restoration of '97. Since founding Design 1st, he has restored and designed over 40 traditional Japanese structures including machiya townhouses, tearooms, kura (storehouses) and temples. Geoffrey has allso been involved in the renovation of a 400-year-old Buddhist temple in Aichi Prefecture of Japan, with the addition of a modern ossuary, as well as the relocation of a 400 -yr old samurai house to the Huntington Gardens, San Marino, CA - set to open in 2023.
His most recent project is as Chief Designer of Genji Kyoto, a luxury boutique hotel located on the Kamo river with spectacular views of the river and mountains. The architectural concept of the Genji Kyoto can best be described as one that is striving for a true Japanese experience through materiality and spatial techniques such as thoroughly integrating interior and exterior spaces. These techniques have been expressed in Japanese architecture through the centuries since the Heian period, the era in which the Tale of Genji is set.
Do you think your career path has been unorthodox or nontraditional?
Maybe unorthodox in the architectural world, but not for MIT.
How did your time at MIT affect your career path?
Simple: If I did not graduate from MIT, I would not be here today.
What is advice you would give to a new alum coming out of MIT?
Just do what you think is right and what you want to do.
If you persevere, you will succeed.
What are you trying to learn right now?
Everything and anything.
How can fellow alums reach you if they want to speak further?
www.design1st.net or gpm.design1st@gmail.com