We are Innovative Designers who think further than buildings.
We consider the broader view of envisioning a city, how strategies can contribute to the global climate discourse, and what can we programme to spur greater community advocacy. Our objective is to identify the necessary steps in achieving holistic designed outcomes.
Our purpose is to address global Sustainable Development Goals and balance localised green performance index (eg. Green Marks Certification), with active communities to continuously enrich the identities of our neighbourhoods.
Yann Follain is the founder of WY-TO Singapore and co-founder of WY-TO architects in Paris. He was named, together with his co-founder, Pauline Gaudry, one of Europe’s most important and emerging young architects and designers in Europe 40 Under 40.
A frequent speaker regionally on Planet-People integrative sustainability, Yann is recognised for his commitment to systemic design which draws on contextual heritage and culture in scaling urban planning, community programming, and cultural curation. In 2022, together with his Team, he embarked on a holistic research study that quantifies well-being strategies through the lens of the built environment as a recipient of the Good Design Research initiative by the DesignSingapore Council.
Guided by our philosophy, “Design with A Cause”, WY-TO Group combines research with a Planetary well-being approach in the design of cities, places, and spatial narratives for People. The design practice was first founded in Singapore in 2010 and later co-founded in Paris in 2012. Our combined Asia and Europe reach has provided our clients in government services and private sectors to reap the systemic benefits of a global outlook and localised design thinking. We address present-day challenges coherently with our advocacy for climate sensitivity and regenerative design in the fields of Urban Planning and Place Design, as well as Architecture (FR). Outlining them are our Green Commitments derived from international benchmarks, adapted local policies, and the collective demonstrations of design outputs from our projects.
We view Experiential Design as a leading methodology in our evidence-based design process. Our focus broadens to enhance distinct identities and characters with our experience in developing scales of Culture Curation, Exhibition Design and Visual Communication.
Every project, from temporary interventions to long-term masterplans, is marked by our distinct human-centric strategy to enact holistic change and meaningful People-Planet continuities. We analyse community dynamics for our designs to reconcile and value-add as coexistence frameworks. Through Curation and Programming, we stimulate inclusive cultural interactions and accessible engagements in the built fabric.
We believe that only by grounding green objectives with strong community-driven perspectives can design solutions be made relevant and resilient in wider contexts.
