As Executive Designer at the Californian design firm WET, Claire Kahn is responsible for the company’s design process and philosophy, which is all about unleashing the magic of water and nature’s other elements to create shared experiences of movement, light and emotion that reconnect us with our world, our senses and each other. With a team including artists, architects, physicists and choreographers, the firm designs novel and surprising water forms not seen in traditional fountains, many taking the movement of individual water elements to a level of precision and motion that approaches those of human performers. WET has pioneered a great number of the technologies that are now common in fountains around the world.

In her twenty-five years with the company, Claire has led design projects for the Los Angeles Music Centre, the Gas Company Tower in Los Angeles, The Barcelona World Trade Centre, Columbus Circle in New York, the San Pedro Gateway, California, and The Fountains of Bellagio in Las Vegas. Claire graduated in design from Stanford University and was the recipient of the university’s Humanities Award. Prior to joining WET, she worked at the architectural and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

Claire is a guest lecturer at Stanford University and a faculty member of the Stanford Continuing Studies Program. She has taught design at the California College of The Arts and lectured at the University of California, Berkeley, California Polytechnic and the Rhode Island School of Design, where her legacy includes creating the Tuttle Scholarship Award.