Pecha Kucha

A Design Community Event

First of all, according to the ladies who run the Washington DC chapter, the words Pecha Kucha, mean “chit-chat” in Japanese. In case you haven’t been or haven’t heard, there is a monthly happening in cities around the world that changes venues, themes, and presenters every month. Only one thing is constant, expect to see twenty images spending twenty seconds on each image. Originating from the design community in Japan, the phenom that is Pecha Kucha is now in close to 500 cities around the world.

In Washington DC the event has been hosted at the Corcoran Museum, the House of Sweden, Artomatic, and downtown bars. What you’ll see is architects, designers, photographers, artists, and educators displaying images and talking about them. Each presenter is allowed twenty images, twenty seconds an image. Rouzita and Bita Vahhabaghai are the two sisters who run Pecha Kucha in DC and also head up their own District-based architecture and design firm, "Ita Design"

They read about the event and pitched the idea of a DC-based chapter to the home office located at the Tokyo headquarters of Klein Dytham Architecture, but it wasn’t an easy sell. “We contacted them but it took some convincing,” says Rouzita, “they want to know if you have the time, the commitment, and the contacts to pull it off.”

“It’s not really a curated show,” says Bita. “We see the images beforehand and interview the presenters on the phone but we never see the whole presentation, so it’s somewhat raw for us too.” There’s a reception before and after the event where the presenters mingle with the audience.

The event has already reaching beyond it’s architectural roots – a calculated move. “That has been on purpose that it’s stretching beyond the design community,” says Rouzita, “architects are always the first to lead it and now it’s spreading out, resulting in so many collaborations.” For your own Pecha Kucha immersion, go to the site and get on the list. Here's the DC Pecha Kucha page.

For more Art and Architecture stories that are not about Pecha Kucha.