MANIFESTO
Founded in Florence in 1999, Studio Lauria has always operated as a network across urban design and planning, architecture, exhibition design and interior design.
From its first project — an exhibition pavilion built in Piazza della Signoria in Florence and presented at the 2000 Venice Architecture Biennale — to its work in South America from 2009 onwards and the buildings designed for Tirana’s emerging urban landscape, Studio Lauria has always been defined by bespoke projects: each one different, each one shaped around a specific context and set of needs.
Our team integrates architecture and engineering, developing projects through every stage and supporting them throughout construction. We work in a BIM environment and offer clients a proven ability to solve complex problems.
Over the years, our ability to work in complex settings, develop new architectural concepts and engage with the restoration and enhancement of the built heritage has led us to collaborate with Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Leonardo Benevolo, Zaha Hadid Architects and Kengo Kuma.
We have designed projects in more than twenty countries, covering over 500,000 square metres. We work closely with cultural institutions, universities and the media, contributing the perspective of an architecture practice rooted in Florence and naturally open to the world.
Studio Lauria is now part of FLOW, a network of designers who share and amplify ideas, experience and professional expertise. The talents and abilities of each member come together to provide every project with the integrated skills it requires.
The future is also a space
Our work takes place in the future: what we design today will be built tomorrow. This is why we like to think of the future not only as a time, but also as a space. Every project must consider possible future scenarios and the impact of unforeseen events, including the uncertainties of the age in which we live. It is essential to recognise the signals that may ultimately influence a project’s success.
In other words, we must balance resilience and flexibility to design spaces with the durability needed to safeguard the investment behind them.
Learning and adapting
To design the architecture of the future, we apply the principles of “fluid” intelligence: the ability to learn and adapt in order to provide specific solutions to complex problems. To do so, we use digital tools and, in particular, Building Information Modelling.
We offer our clients extensive experience and the ability to develop solutions tailored to every social and geographical context.
Making sustainability tangible
We see sustainability as a responsibility that guides our choices of materials and technologies, leading us to create architecture that promotes wellbeing, efficiency and durability. This is also why we believe in conserving, reusing and enhancing existing buildings.
Sustainability is a commitment to future generations: it means designing cities and buildings that remain comfortable and appealing while protecting the environment and respecting the social contexts in which they are located.
An elastic city
The increasingly rapid transformation of lifestyles, working patterns, production and commerce requires us to move beyond current urban models and beyond closed, single-purpose or self-referential places. We need a new paradigm based on adaptability, and we imagine the city as a multiplicity of experiences, relationships and opportunities.
Dynamism and flexibility are two fundamental qualities for shaping urban space. We believe that the city of today and tomorrow must, in a word, be elastic.
Made in Italy
Our heart is in Florence and we work throughout Italy, a country that has combined the mastery of craftsmanship with industrial efficiency to create “Made in Italy”: an internationally recognised hallmark in which we strongly believe.
When we design abroad, we therefore combine close attention to local characteristics with the values and qualities passed down through a millennia-old culture and an instinctive love of beauty.
We make architecture
We work as a network, forming teams around the specific goals of each project and bringing together urban planners, landscape architects, mobility and services specialists, designers, communications professionals, economists and sociologists. Together, we listen to the client’s needs, analyse the most promising scenarios and assess the most effective and efficient design options.
We are drawn to the challenge of the new, just as we engage passionately with the existing built environment. We approach architectural restoration and urban and building regeneration through sustainable reuse, respecting the history and memory of places and communities.
We design emotions
We take our clients’ aspirations to heart, designing bespoke architecture that responds to its context and to the feelings and dreams of the people who will inhabit it.
We believe that design should be an act of awareness, creating satisfaction and happiness both for those who develop it and for those who will benefit from it.
We love art and carefully select colour; we are inspired by music while remaining attentive to the way sound must be managed in the spaces we inhabit. We choose materials and textures for both the eye and the touch; we measure light, and we value the feeling of fresh air on the skin.