PHILOSOPHY
Karu: ‘traveling to faraway lands’ in the native Quechua language of the Incas.
Born in Peru, Mélanie Murata spent time as a child in the Andes, in a small town where life unfolded at an intimate scale, surrounded by mountains, earth, stone, handcraft, ritual, and a profound sense of connection between people and their environment.
Long before architecture became her profession, these early landscapes gave her an instinct for material, atmosphere, imperfection, and the quiet beauty of things made by hand. That sensibility traveled with her. Raised in America and descended from Spanish Castilian and Venetian Italian heritage, Murata later found her architectural language in Europe, studying in Florence and immersing herself in the classical worlds of Italy before refining her sensibility in Milan.
There, the poetry of the Andes met the discipline of European design, the permanence of stone and proportion, the sophistication of restraint, the precision of Italian craftsmanship. Today, KARU carries this dialogue across continents: the ancestral memory of the Andes, the cultural depth of Europe, the possibility of America, and the quiet rigor of Japan. Working across private estates, hospitality, branded residences, and collectible design, Murata brings together master artisans, artists, historic techniques, and contemporary architecture to create environments of extraordinary character.
Her work is cultivated way of seeing, where a centuries-old material can feel entirely new, where craftsmanship becomes a form of storytelling, and where every detail has a reason to exist.
For KARU, luxury is the privilege of inhabiting something deeply considered, culturally resonant, and impossible to replicate, an environment that feels as though it could only have come into being for the people, place, and moment it was created to hold.
MéLANIE MURATA, PRINCIPAL
An award-winning American architectural designer, art director, and professor, born in Lima to a family of Spanish Castilian and Venetian Italian heritage — descended from architects and engineers on her father's side and couture seamstresses on her mother's. She studied Classical and Renaissance architecture in Florence, then refined her practice in Milan under the mentorship of Piero Lissoni's studio, later deepening that work through a Medici Art Residency with Galerie Philia.
Her career has taken her from Gensler's Hospitality Studio in Los Angeles to NBCUniversal Hollywood, and today she runs KARU, her own design direction practice focused on hospitality and branded residences — advising developers, hospitality brands, royal families (including bespoke commissions for Her Royal Highness in Qatar), and private clients across Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and the Middle East. She's an LA Times 40 Under 40 honoree, has presented work at Milan Design Week, Frieze Los Angeles, Dubai Design Week, and Art Basel Miami, and has been featured in Architectural Digest and Interior Design.
She also teaches as a Professor in the School of Interior Architecture at Boston Architectural College, sits on Dean Denise Rush's Advisory Board there, and has served on the National Board of Directors of the American Society of Interior Designers since 2015. She's currently art-directing a New York capsule collection with Atelier Frigerio Mirva for BDNY 2026, and splits her time across Tokyo, Milan, Los Angeles, and Doha.