Sayaka Akayama, Associate ASLA

Sayaka approaches landscape architecture a lot like a paleontologist – allowing a design to reveal the historical and cultural layers of a site and enhancing those layers to better serve the community. Saya originally thought that she would be excavating fossils as a career, that is until a professor invited her into a landscape architecture group in her native Nagasaki, Japan. In her free time, you can find Saya indulging in her love of movies, cooking, and local events. But her favorite creative pursuit is block printing. Impressively, she carves her own rubber stamps and has been making a New Year’s card each of the last 18 years! She hopes to make enough one day to sell online.