Ken Saiki

Founder, Principal Emeritus, Landscape Architect
ksaiki@saiki.design

Ken is not the easiest man to interview.

Too much on the line,  

and the office is always in mind.

All I could get him to reveal went like…

a few strokes, like 10, off his golf game

Perhaps the best way then,

to get to know Ken, would be to consider

his unique approach to landscape architecture,

and the firm, Saiki Design.

An alternative shop of renegade designers,

a city of creative processes

Enlivened by the energy of youth,

and a group of liberated senior designers.

Ken’s philosophy has no manifesto, simply:

“Work must be fun.”

Ken doesn’t strike me as the type of person

who names a design firm after himself.

There is no ego in his workflow,

no a priori right way to design, and no

Saiki signature imposed upon the lives

and efforts of others.

Design is problem-solving.
Design is starting over with nothing, but the experience of having tried before.
Design has no final solution, for it is a reiterative process

a base level of understanding

constantly being called into question.