Yatofu Creatives’ two founders, Angela Lindahl and Yihan Xiang, met in Helsinki’s Aalto University while completing their Masters Degrees’ in interior architecture. Lindahl comes from an industrial design background, while Xiang had previously been trained in interior design at Beijing’s Tsinghua University.

While studying, they quickly realised that their diverse backgrounds allowed them to form distinct points of view, and create unique perspectives to offer both the Nordic design and the Indo-Pacific region’s design landscape.

Lindahl and Xiang started their own studio with very strong convictions about the type of practice that they would like it to become. Many thought the duo naïve when they began because they were forming the studio from their own points of views.

They spend a lot of time at the beginning of all of their projects to dig deep into the five Ws (who, what, where, when, why), so that a concept can be grounded in something that is contextual before exploring creative possibilities.

In the future the pair hope to take an even braver approach through more experimental and daring projects. Whether it’s sustainable materials/practices or implementing new cultural moments, they want to create profound and lasting influences through what they do and help shape the landscape of the architecture and design industry.

Photography: Aava Eronen, Aleksi Tikkala, Wen Studio