Pippo was founded in 2025 with a focus on residential and commercial design. But I am not doing it alone but leveraging my twenty years of experience as the director of MRT design, my team mates in Shanghai and partners here in North America.

Even though I grew up in the US, I spent over twenty years working in Asia as a designer and founded my own practice in 2006. However, starting a family and having kids change the equation and in 2024, my family decided to move back to the US to Seattle where my parents and sibling are located. Travelling back and forth to Asia is part of my routine but I also wanted to be able to design for client here in the US.

I have a strong interest in passive house design and got certified as a CPHC (certified passive house consultant) by PHIUS.org in 2025 and registered PIPPO LLC as a general contractor. This is part of an effort to better equip ourselves as better designers that can help client through out the entire journey of realizing their idea and dreams.

In addition spatial design, my wife and I started an incense brand called kin objects (kinobjects.com) . Please check it out if you are interested in modern, well designed incense holders and curated selection of incense from across Asia (some of them are made in-house by us!).

- Bill Yen

Education:

Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, Cambridge MA (M. Arch)

Duke University, Durham NC (BA)

Professional Experience:

Pippo LLC, Seattle, Partner; 2025 - Present

Kin Objects, Design Director; 2019 - Present

MRT design, Shanghai, Founding Partner / Director; 2006 - Present

MRKT products, Shanghai, Design Director, 2008 - 2010

Kennedy and Violich Architecture, Boston, Architectural Designer; 2002 - 2003

Academic Positions:

2012 - 2016 Fudan University School of Visual Arts, Professor + Thesis advisor

2010 - 2016 Hong Kong University (Shanghai Campus), Assistant Professor / Lecturer, Landscape Architecture

2003 - 2004 Tongji University Shanghai, Visiting Scholar, Urban Planning Department