PRACTICE APPROACH

Kalos Eidos is a design studio focused on creating environments.  Overlapping a foundation in architecture with other modes of design, creative practice and cultural research, the work of the office takes an expanded approach to architecture practice that looks beyond the building envelope.  Rather than center on a specific project type or scale, the office pursues a broad range—from objects, installations and interiors, to buildings and urban spaces.

With this interdisciplinary approach, we are motivated by an interest in exploring alternative possibilities for living, working, making and engaging culture through design, and we consider these core activities to encompass a range of outputs spanning from the artifact to the city. 

The name Kalos Eidos takes inspiration from the Greek roots of the word kaleidoscope: kalos translates to beauty, as an outer reflection of inner integrity; eidos refers to shape or observable likeness as indicative of an essential idea.  Together they assert the notion of content and form as fundamentally interrelated in shaping experience and meaning, a position which informs our process and underlies our understanding and valuation of design more broadly.

PRINCIPAL

Ryan Brooke Thomas holds a B.A. from Stanford University, where she graduated with Honors in Modern Thought & Literature, and a M.Arch. degree from UCLA School of Architecture & Urban Design. While at UCLA, she received a Graduate Fellowship in Architecture, was selected to exhibit student work at the Venice Biennale of Architecture’s U.S. Pavilion led by Greg Lynn & Hani Rashid, and received the annual “Best Studio Project: Thesis” award in her final year.

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Thomas has held leadership roles at multiple boutique architecture and design offices in both Los Angeles and New York including Belzberg Architects, AvroKO and Architecture at Large//Rafael de Cardenas. 

Most recently, she was Director of Architectural Design for the multidisciplinary design firm 2x4, where she ran the architecture studio and led diverse teams of architects, strategists, graphic and interactive designers on a wide array of project types all over the world.

Thomas has taught studio courses at Syracuse University School of Architecture, Parsons School of Constructed Environments and Pratt Institute Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design.  She is a regularly invited design critic and has participated in juried reviews at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Pratt, Parsons, NJIT, Kent State, Syracuse, Rice, UCLA, & SCI-Arc. 

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Thomas is Co-chair of the AIANY New Practices Committee which oversees the biannual awards competition through the Center for Architecture and develops programming and dialogue for an associated network of designers with emerging architecture practices in New York.

DESIGN CAPABILITIES

With diverse experience in architecture and interior design, branding and creative strategy, spatial experience and activation, exhibition and installation — we are uniquely positioned to offer creative and nuanced solutions that synthesize multiple areas of design expertise. We offer design services for residential, commercial and institutional projects within:

—buildings and interiors

—civic spaces and urban environments

—furniture and objects

—installations, events and exhibitions

—spatial brand and concept development
 

Our studio is based in New York with clients and projects located across the country.  We work independently with clients and also in collaborative partnership with other designers, architects, branding agencies and real estate developers.

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Kalos Eidos is a WBE certified Woman-owned Business Enterprise. 

DESIGN TEAM

Past & present contributors to the work of the office include:

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Designers

Kai Liao

Christina Papalexandri

Kristine Ericson

Matthew Kennedy

Helen Davies

Interns

Nazli Unsal

Shamika Khare

Collaborators

Melanie Freeland

WIP Collaborative