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
Urban Apothecary :
A parasitic project that completes the urban fabric in the historic neighbourhood of Strathcona in Vancouver. The rational of the project is divided in two programs. An indoor farm that provides vegetables and herbs to complement the African heritage persued by its neighbours. The strucutre is also concentrated around the indoor farm to provide insulation for the plants and maintain an annual average temp of between 19ºC - 21ºC. The rest of the space is a semi-outdoor space. With a roof provided, this space can convert to whatever the space can allow. From a cafe to a studio space.
