Okawa Yoshinari is the Managing Director of TOA Landscape Architecture with offices in Japan and China. In 1999, he graduated from the University of Tsukuba in Japan with a major in environmental design. He then worked in Tokyo and Singapore before establishing TOA Landscape Architecture in Shanghai, where he has served as Managing Director ever since. With over 25 years of experience, he specializes in hospitality and resort landscapes and has been involved in numerous hotel projects for top-tier brands.
WLA | What was your path to becoming a landscape architect?
Since I was a child, I’ve always enjoyed drawing and working on crafts, which naturally led me to develop an interest in art and design as a future career. This passion brought me to the University of Tsukuba, where I enrolled in the School of Art and Design, majoring in Environmental Design.
Before entering university, I thought of design mainly as the act of creating new shapes or styles. However, the more I learned, the more I realized that design is about providing solutions to enrich people’s lives—and that thoughtful design supports much of our daily lives, often unnoticed.
Among the many fields within design, I became particularly interested in space — the places where people live and interact. At university, I studied a broad range of topics including architecture, urban planning, and landscape design. I was especially drawn to landscape design, which creates spaces where plants lead in shaping the environment. I felt great potential in designing with greenery and water, rather than just steel and concrete, and I became determined to pursue a career in this field.
I began my professional journey at Tokyo Landscape Architects, where I was involved in designing public spaces such as urban landscapes and city parks. Later, due to Japan’s prolonged economic stagnation, I moved to Singapore, where I had the opportunity to work on more private and hospitality-focused projects such as hotels and condominiums.
Step by step, I’ve continued to build my path as a landscape architect.
WLA | What is your approach to landscape design?
I have spent a significant part of my career working outside of my home country, and most of my professional experience has involved collaborating with other Asian colleagues from diverse cultural backgrounds. Through these experiences, I have often become aware of the differences in how people from various countries perceive and approach design. These cultural perspectives have had a noticeable impact on the design process itself.
When I first began working abroad, I found that my design sensibility rooted in Japanese culture was not always well understood. I often needed to create more visually striking and easily understandable designs to communicate effectively. In many cases, I found myself emphasizing form and appearance more than I typically would, to meet the expectations of clients and collaborators with different cultural frameworks.
Over time, however, I have come to reaffirm my belief that landscape design is profoundly shaped by the element of time. Plants grow and change, and the scale and feel of a space evolve with the seasons and years. Because of this, I see landscape design as a discipline where the forces of nature and the passage of time play a fundamental role.
Rather than allowing human-made design elements to dominate, I strive to create spaces that prioritize overall balance and harmony.
WLA | What do you try to incorporate in all your designs? (design principle, objective, idea)
Simplicity and human scale are things I’ve come to really value, especially since I started working in China. In the beginning, I was blown away by the massive scale of the projects. As a designer, it was exciting to be part of such huge developments, and I was constantly pushing myself to create bold, ambitious designs.
But over time, I realized I was sometimes designing more than was necessary by filling in every space just because I could. Often, the scale of the finished spaces didn’t feel quite right. I also visited many high-profile projects across China. While they were visually impressive at first glance, I often found they lacked comfort when actually walking through them. This wasn’t just in landscapes—it was something I noticed in many new urban developments too. They looked amazing, but didn’t always offer a true sense of place.
Through these experiences, I started to see things differently. Now, I try to create spaces that aren’t too much or too little—just well-balanced. In design, that means not overdoing it but also not holding back too much. In terms of scale, it’s about finding that sweet spot—not too big, not too small, but comfortable for people to be in.
Throughout the process, I keep asking myself: is anything unnecessary? Does the scale feel right?
WLA | What is a key issue that is facing the landscape architecture profession?
I’m not good at talking about significant, complicated concepts, but I have some simple thoughts I’d like to share. I believe that individual bodily perception and soft, often ambiguous sensibilities are essential in landscape design.
These days, with the advancement of technology, almost everything is carried out and finalized on computers. There’s a tendency to expect highly accurate predictions of how a project will look and perform—even before anything is actually built, and clients often go along with that expectation. However, landscape design deals with nature, which is inherently unpredictable. I believe it should remain a more sensory, intuitive process.
Every tree is different, and every site has its unique conditions. As technologies like AI continue to evolve and become more central to the design process, I believe it’s even more important for designers to embrace human sensitivity, embracing ambiguity, imperfection, and even a bit of playfulness.
This is especially true for landscape design, perhaps even more so than in architecture or interior design.
Thank you to Okawa Yoshinari for taking the time to answer our questions for this profile on World Landscape Architecture.
Image Credits: Courtesy of TOA Landscape Architecture