Kuma&Elsa is an international architecture and urban design office founded in 2018 by Elsa Escobedo, a Spanish-French architect and urban planner, and Shohei Kuma, a Japanese architect. Together, they develop projects in architecture, urbanism, and urban sociology across Spain, France, and Japan.
In 2022, they won the competition to design a rest pavilion and all-gender public toilet for the Osaka World Expo 2025. Their winning proposal, One Water, is a water cycle pavilion whose materials and components are primarily rented or reusable, following a circular economy approach and leveraging outstanding Japanese craftsmanship.
Their project, "House by the Temple," received the Jury Encouragement Award at the 2025 Japan Residential Architecture Prize. Their work has been featured in METALOCUS, GA Houses, Domus, Arquitectura Viva, Neo2, and Shinkenchiku, among other publications. They have also been guest lecturers at the Istituto Europeo di Design Kunsthal in Bilbao and Kyushu University in Japan.
