Bio / Manifesto
Founded by Colin Mbugua, KAGVRV is an architecture and design studio rooted in material honesty, cultural intelligence, and care for context. Working between Vancouver, Kenya, and Europe, the studio focuses on small, high-impact projects that prioritize ecological interdependence, food sovereignty, and social continuity.
We design with an understanding that architecture is not just about form—it is about relation. Our work resists the pressure to overbuild or overstate. Instead, we create adaptive, thoughtful structures that respond to how people actually live, grow, and gather.
Whether designing a vertical farm behind a neighborhood shop, an art studio module for aging artists, or a courtyard refuge for women in semi-arid Kenya, KAGVRV builds formats for collective dignity—spaces that host meaning, support healing, and invite new social rhythms.
Influenced by thinkers long before us, our practice values smallness, slowness, and specificity. We see architecture as a kind of infrastructure for joy: quiet, accessible, and built to last.
We’re not here to impress. We’re here to offer architecture that nourishes
Contact : colin@kagvrv.com
Colin’s primary interest lies in the urban condition of Vancouver. The practise is involved in mediating how multi-generational families cohabitate space. With great influence from British Columbia’s vast and rich country, research between Vancouvers relationship to it’s countryside has led to exhibition and sculptural work to further his engagement with his surrounding territorial issues.
contact : colin@kagvrv.com
Live and Work Laneway Home
Location : Vancouver, British Columbia
Status : Permitting
The brief initially dictated a combination of an art studio and apartment. Commonly refered to as a lane-way house in Canada, this auxilary lot underwent policy change allowing for a more nuanced use of ones laneway property. As seen below, the design celebrates the program allowing for the multi generational occupants both in the existing main house and laneway to live and work with space for private semi - private and semi - public moments required in work and life.
South Section : Depicting both access into the apartment, art studio and rooftop deck. Right up against the rear lane, auxilary units tend to need privacy from all 4 sides resulting in an introverted design with moments of voyerism for both the occupant and the public. 
North Section : The site falls on a steep hill, allowing for a play in scale. A modest presentation along the lane and porous facade looking into the rear courtyard. The roof top deck thus provides a much needed release, connecting the occupant to the context and benefitting from the altitude that allows for views into the North Vancouver mountain scape.
East Section : Designed with the intention to maintain warmth in the winter and cool in the summer, cross ventialtion integrated both in the building envelope (air gaps) and interior space ensures by simply opening or closing windows provides signifacant temperature and air quality differences. The clerestory windo looking into the apartment from the rooftop deck provides an atmosphere of washed natural light down the vaulted cieling and thermal gain throughout the year. The rendering of the light along the vaulted cieling provides the occupant with an intimate perspective of time of year and light.