Modernism Without Borders: The Raymonds and Architectural Collaboration

A conversation between architectural historian Helena Čapková and architect Sunil Bald offers a compelling insight into architectural practice in Japan—its everyday realities, cultural nuances, and collaborative challenges. The discussion will explore working with Japanese architects while highlighting the remarkable career of Czech American architect Antonín Raymond, whose firm became one of the most successful foreign architectural practices in Japan.

From the 1920s through the 1970s, Antonín and Noémi Raymond, together with their teams in Japan and the United States, designed hundreds of projects ranging from intimate residential works to major public commissions. Their architecture is celebrated for its sensitive synthesis of modernist principles with elements inspired by traditional Japanese art and craftsmanship. While Antonín Raymond is widely recognized as a key figure in transnational modern architecture, the vital contribution of Noémi Raymond has long remained in his shadow—a perspective the discussion will also seek to address.

Helena Čapková is a curator, researcher, and professor of art and architectural history at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, working between Tokyo, Kyoto, and Prague. Her research focuses on Japanese modernism and the avant-garde as an integral part of global art history. Her publications include Transnational Networkers (2014), Antonin Raymond in Japan, 1948–1976 (2022), and Bedřich Feuerstein, Architect: Prague–Paris–Tokyo (2022).

Sunil Bald is an architect and educator and co-founder of studioSUMO. His work explores the intersection of material experimentation, spatial invention, and cultural context. His projects span Japan and the United States and include the Mizuta Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora in New York, and the iHouse Student Village in Togane, Japan. He taught at the Yale School of Architecture for eighteen years and served as Associate Dean from 2017 to 2024.

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