Taller KEN is a New York and Guatemala based practice focused on playful design with social and cultural relevancy. Founded in 2013, the firm embraces the collaborative nature of making partnerships and connections. Incorporating a multitude of voices, our work goes beyond merely elevating elements of design to creating an architecture with broad appeal.
The firm often works in developing countries and urban areas defined by an imbalance of growth and social inequities. Realizing projects in this context has helped the practice establish its approach to working in the public realm. In 2016, Taller KEN began an annual design-build initiative in order to work more closely with local communities. The program, FUNdaMENTAL brings design interns together with real world problems and partners to engage in all phases of realizing of a public urban intervention for the collective good.
Inés Guzmán and Gregory Melitonov prior to founding the practice worked for Pritzker Prize laureate Renzo Piano. Both gained a great deal of experience on large construction projects in Manhattan as part of the design team for the Whitney Museum of American Art and the headquarters building for the High Line. Inés holds a Masters and Bachelors degree in Architecture from the Universidad del Diseño de San José, Costa Rica. Gregory holds a Masters in Architecture from Yale University and a Bachelors of Science in Studio Art from Skidmore College.
