Artist Credit: Kenta Miyakawa

ASAI in ASIA: Past/Present/Future/Now
October 1st -3rd, 2025

Architecture in Perspective
International Conference

Hosted by ASAI

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ASAI in ASIA: Past/Present/ Future/Now

October 1st - 3rd, 2025

Past

How can traditional Illustration help your creative vision.

Present

What are the current developments in Architectural Illustration.

Future

What lies in the future for Architectural Illustration.

Now

Develop your current tools and meet industry experts.

Rapid change continues to affect the architectural visualization community. No longer are architectural illustrations simply impressions of what a completed building will look like, as a finished piece of artwork. Instead, design and imagery evolve together, allowing designers, clients, and the general public to gain a deeper understanding of—and provide increased feedback on—the proposed changes to the built environment.

With the arrival of AI, designers can instantaneously unlock a world of new imaginative ideas. It’s like a new way of sketching. What are the possibilities and what are the limitations of AI imagery? This is a topic that we will discuss at the 2025 ASAI conference in Tokyo. Specialists will explain how they create architectural illustrations using Grasshopper, VRay, Enscape, Forma, Sora, and Runway. Attendees are asked to bring their own laptops, and if they have any of this software, they can apply what they learn, on the spot.

Imagination and image making is another important topic that will be discussed at the conference. Like any profession, architectural illustration constitutes a service, rather than a product. We provide a “mind,” not just a “hand.” The role of an architectural illustrator is to imagine future worlds, beyond what words, numbers, and legal descriptions can describe. We illustrators have the unique ability to give visual form to our imagined future, to generate discussion and give emotional content to these discussions. Speakers at our ASAI 2025 Conference will reveal how they imagine and create images of future worlds. Come and be inspired as they create real-time drawing right before your eyes.

Bringing back art and style to computer renderings will also be discussed at ASAI 2025. In the quest to achieve photorealistic architectural visualizations, have images lost emotional or sensory appeal? Has the designer’s message or unique insight been lost in the rush to depict a shiny object? Is there still a need for architectural images that have their own unique style? In competition images, this is especially critical. What exactly do architects and decision-makers look for in architectural imagery?

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

妹島和世

KAZUYO SEJIMA,

ARCHITECT, PRITZKER PRIZE WINNER, AND 2025 RIBA ROYAL GOLD MEDAL WINNER

Kazuyo Sejima was born in Ibaraki, Japan. She graduated from the Japan Women’s University in 1981 and in 1987 she opened her own studio in Tokyo. In 1995, together with Ryue Nishizawa, she founded SANAA. Her own works include House in Plum Grove, Inujima Art House project, and Japan Women’s University Mejiro Campus. SANAA’s main works include the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, the Rolex Learning Center, Louvre-Lens, Grace Farms, Bocconi University New Urban Campus, La Samaritaine, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales Expansion – Naala Badu Building.

In 2010 Kazuyo Sejima was appointed director of the 12th International Architecture the Exhibition of Venice Biennale. Her honors include the Japan Architecture Award, Venice Biennale Golden Lion Award, Rolf Schock Prize in the Category of Visual Arts, Pritzker Architecture Prize, Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Letters, Prix de l’Équerre d’Argent, the Medal with Purple Ribbon, Thomas Jefferson Medal, and Praemium Imperiale.

She is currently a professor at the Polytechnic University of Milan, a visiting professor at Japan Women’s University and Osaka University of Arts, an Emeritus Professor at Yokohama National University, and Director of Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum.

Meet the Speakers

Arturo Tedeschi

Arturo Tedeschi
Computational Design

Arturo Tedeschi is an Italian architect and computational designer internationally renowned for his sculptural and visionary approach combined with research on advanced design methods, materials and fabrication technologies. His use of digital technologies blurs the line between disciplines and emphasizes the semantic and emotional values of objects.

Since 2004 Arturo Tedeschi has complemented professional practice with personal research on algorithmic design, focusing on relationships between architecture and new design tools. His work includes techniques such as Algorithms-Aided Design, CNC milling, robotic milling, 3D printing, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality.

Tomoyuki Tanaka

Waseda University
photo: Kioku Keizo

田中智之　たなかともゆき

建築家・早稲田大学教授

Tomoyuki Tanaka is an architect and a professor at Waseda University.

He has participated in numerous exhibitions, including “Civil Engineering Exhibition,” at 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, in 2016. He also held a solo exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto in 2019. His work has appeared in many major publications, including “Hyper Architectural Perspective Drawings: 26 Hand-Drawing Techniques for Manipulating Spatial Shapes” (Gakugei Shuppansha, 2021).

Frank Costantino

F.M.C. Cos.
-

Frank Costantino has practiced architectural illustration for over 50 years. His firm has collaborated with preeminent architectural, design, and development firms throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. His commissions—for a stellar and consistent clientele—include AIA Gold Medalists Cesar Pelli, Moshe Safdie, I.M. Pei, Peter Bohlin, Joseph Esherick, Benjamin Thompson, and Jose Luis Sert; as well as eighteen AIA Firm Award winners, among others.

Frank’s diverse output of illustrations has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most notably at The Art Institute of Chicago, New York’s Museum Of Modern Art, and the Urban Center, and the Octagon Museum in Washington, D.C. His drawings are included in the permanent collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, Washington’s Library of Congress, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Skirball Cultural Center, LA, the Tchoban Foundation Museum, Berlin, and the Boston Athenaeum.

Kenta Miyakawa

Nikken Sekkei

宮川　健太 Kenta Miyakawa is the winner of the AIP 38 Hugh Ferris Memorial Prize. His presentation will show how the Nikken Illustration Studio uses AI in the creation of architectural illustrations.

株式会社日建設計、プレゼンテーション部のCGチームに所属。宮川健太。

２００７年に日建設計入社。

学生時代にCGにめぐりあい、建築CGの道を志す。美しさを目標に素早くアウトプットしていくCGクリエイター。

建築ビジュアライゼーションを中心に、アニメーションやマルチメディア制作などのプロダクション業務に携わり、多くの設計業務ならびにコンペ等を経験。

新カンプノウコンペやドバイOne Za’abeelなどの多くのプロジェクトに参画。

多くの受賞歴もあり、3dsoft、realtimerenderやAIを駆使し、日建設計CGの品質を高め、ビジュアルにプラスアルファの意識をもって、現在もCGクリエイターとして活躍

George Hull

George Hull Design

George Hull is a conceptual designer and art director for the film industry. He started his career at Lucas Film’s Industrial Light & Magic, and his earliest credit was for the Oscar-winning film Forrest Gump. He then quickly climbed to the position of lead visual effects art director on films like Mission Impossible, Jurassic Park 2, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Return of The Jedi Special editions.

After 6 years at ILM George left to form George Hull Design. As an independent he is always pursuing the most creative stage of a film’s visual development. As one of Hollywood’s leading conceptual designers, George specializing in creating unique and imaginative worlds including the cinematography, settings, and vehicles that live within them. Recently George worked as a Senior Conceptual Designer on the highly acclaimed DUNE as well as BLADE RUNNER 2049, STAR WARS IIV, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL.2, THE CLOUD ATLAS, V for VENDETTA ,the science fiction epic The MATRIX: Reloaded, Revolutions, Resurrections. George is currently working on DUNE PART 2. To see more of his work please go to www.ghull.com.

Hera Kim

TinkerTailor

김헤라 Hera Kim is a creative director, AI designer, and florist, based in Seoul, South Korea. She is the founder of TINKERTAILOR Studio, where she merges art, nature, and technology. She is an AI prompt engineer and art director for projects in Paris, Dubai, and Milan. She has collaborated with Christie’s, & Other Stories, SpaceNK, Charles & Keith, and the Royal New Zealand Ballet. Recognized as one of the top 10 AI designers in 2023, Hera has received awards from the Korean Ministry of Culture and the Maekyung NFT Digital Art Contest.

Dan Stine

Lake| Flato Architects

Dan Stine is the Director of Design Technology at Lake|Flato Architects, a top-ranked firm based in San Antonio, Texas. He also leads the firm’s Investigations program, an internal research initiative. A registered architect, Dan is an educator, author, blogger, and international speaker. He teaches graduate architecture students at North Dakota State University (NDSU) and has authored 19 textbooks, widely used in academia. His works include two books on architectural hand sketching and the top selling Autodesk Revit book in North America. Dan is commissioned to write blog posts for Chaos Enscape and, with them, attended Autodesk University in London, as an expert customer in 2019.

Kevin Walsh

Nikken Sekkei

Kevin Walsh is an associate architect with Nikken Sekkei in Tokyo. Primarily working in early stage design, his work involves expertise in conceptual thinking, environmental simulation, and computational design.

A graduate of the Dublin School of Architecture and the AA, Kevin’s current research explores how AI can be integrated into architectural design to catalog, assess, and enhance design iterations.

As a top-rated speaker at Autodesk University, Kevin has presented on the intersection of technology and design. In his ASAI talk, he will explore the transformative role AI is set to play in design workflows and how architectural illustrators can become key collaborators in this evolving process.

Gordon Grice

Gordon Grice + Associates

Gordon is a freelance architectural writer and editor. He is a 36-year member and a past president of ASAI. As an architectural illustrator, his work has appeared in exhibitions internationally. His writing has been published widely in books and periodicals. His current editing work includes the AIP catalogs and the emag The Right Angle Journal. Gordon’s professional memberships include the Ontario Association of Architects, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada College of Fellows and the Massey College Quadrangle Society. He is a recipient of the OAA Medal of Da Vinci and an ASAI Lifetime Achievement Award.

Live Painting Demonstration – (Friday, October 3rd: Evening)

長谷川幾与

Kiyo Hasegawa

Born in Tokyo in 1984, Kiyo Hasegawa is a distinguished contemporary Nihonga artist renowned for integrating traditional Japanese painting techniques, such as Japanese paper, mineral pigments, and Japanese ink, with innovative abstract expressions. She completed her Master’s degree at Tama Art University, specializing in Nihonga. Her work has been showcased in major exhibitions, including Shin Japanese Painting: Revolutionary Nihonga at the Pola Museum of Art. In recognition of her contributions to the art world, she was honored as Harper’s Bazaar Woman on the Frontier in 2023. In 2025, she held a solo exhibition at Art Fair Tokyo, Japan’s largest international art fair, where she was represented by A Lighthouse called Kanata. Demonstrating her commitment to Japanese aesthetics, she founded KEIGAN ART in 2024, an online platform introducing Japanese artists to an international audience.

和紙、岩絵具、墨などの伝統的な日本画の技法と、斬新な抽象表現との融合で知られる現代日本画家。多摩美術大学大学院修士課程修了。主な展覧会に「新・日本画」展（東京）、「革命の日本画」展（東京）など：ポーラ美術館「新・日本画-革命の日本画」展など。アート界への貢献が認められ、2023年にはハーパーズバザー「ウーマン・オン・ザ・フロンティア」に選出。2025年、日本最大の国際アートフェアであるアートフェア東京で個展を開催。日本の美学へのコミットメントを示すため、2024年、日本のアーティストを海外のオーディエンスに紹介するオンラインプラットフォームKEIGAN ARTを設立。

Conference Schedule (TBD)

We recommend that you plan arrive before the afternoon of October 1st, in order to register at 1:00 pm and network at the sketch tour at 3:00 pm. The conference will end at 9:00 pm, October 3rd.

Hotel Options

Preferred hotel: The Hotel Metropolitan Edmont Tokyo

—a five-minute walk from Nikken Iidabashi Headquarters, and close to the Iidabashi and Suidobashi subway stations.

Mitsui Garden Hotel Otemachi

—a five-minute walk from Nikken`s Takebashi office, and not too far from Tokyo Station and the Tokyo Imperial Palace.

Hotel Century Southern Tower

—in the bustling Shinjuku neighborhood, and a 15-minute subway ride from the Nikken Iidabashi Headquarters (plus about a 25-minute walk).

9h Nine Hours Suidobashi (capsule hotel)

—a five-minute walk from our Nikken Iidabashi Headquarters—an inexpensive solution, probably best suited for people in their 20s willing to sleep in a capsule and use a shared bathroom. It’s inexpensive and convenient.

Tokyo Dome Hotel

—a 15-minute walk from the Nikken Iidabashi Headquarters.

Travel Info

We are partnering with Nikken Sekkei to present an event that will inspire current and future leaders in the industry.

Plan to extend your visit to include Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai after the Conference, on Oct 6th—Unfortunately, not included in conference ticket price.

Info on additional speakers, sketch tour, exhibition opening and schedule will be made available soon.

More travel and accommodation above. Email hq@asai.org for a list of suggested hotels.

Nikken - Takebashi Office

Nikken - Iidabashi Office

Nikken - Iidabashi Office (PYNT)

Nikken - Iidabashi Office

Locations - Coming Soon!

Nikken Iidabashi Headquarters

Floor 3

2-18-3 Iidabashi,

Chiyoda-ku

Tokyo, Japan

Nikken Takebashi Office

Palaceside Building

Floor 8

1-1-1 Hitotsubashi,

Chiyoda-ku

Tokyo, Japan

Preview Our Past AIP 38 and AIP 37 Conferences in Texas and London.

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