As a former partner of Loom, which she co-founded in 1993, Raveevarn Choksombatchai co-authored a broad range of projects merging art, architecture, and environmental design. Loom had a successful track record for the past ten years, as the recipients of three Progressive Architecture Awards (1998) and Citations (1996, 2002); Emerging Voices in Architecture by the Architecture League of New York (1999); a nominee for the Chrysler Design Award (2000); and for the National Design Award in the area of environmental design by the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institute (2002). Raveevarn has re-invented a new independent practice. VeeV, based in San Francisco opens its studio in January 2005. While her new practice shares many of Loom's ambitions, she envisions VeeV as a collaborative design/research practice that will move further into the realm of experiments and design investigation.
As a three years old design practice, VeeV has been short-listed for two major international competitions. The proposal for National AIDS memorial in the Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, was selected one of the five finalists in an open competition in 2005. In January 2006, her design for the Tsunami Memorial and Museum was named one of the five finalists for an open international competition. Regionally, VeeV received the 2007 AIA San Francisco Chapter Design Honor Award in Interior Architecture for the Gillis Library and the Unbuilt Design Citation for the National AIDS Memorial Proposal. VeeV was named one of the year 2008 "Ten to Watch" Design Studios by California Home + Design. This October, VeeV will be included among a large pool international architectural design practices to be showcased in 2009 Architecture and Design Exhibition at the Seoul Design Olympiad entitled: Architecture: A User's Manual. The exhibit will be held from October 9-29, 2009 inside the Main Olympic Stadium at Jamsil Sports Complex, Seoul, South Korea.
Raveevarn began her design education in Bangkok, Thailand, at Chulalongkorn University. She continued her graduate studies in both Architecture and Landscape Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Raveevarn received The Arthur Wheelwright Traveling Fellowship Award from Harvard University in 1996 and the LEF Foundation Grant in 1999.
Raveevarn is now an Associate Professor in Architecture Design at University of California at Berkeley. She is also a visiting professor and serves as a design critic at numerous academic institutions both in the States and abroad. Most recently, she holds a visiting professorship at University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Both of her design and academic work have been exhibited and published widely in the US and abroad.
