Practice ← Gianni Botsford Architects

Local Adaptation

Gianni Botsford Architects is an architecture and urban design practice based in London. Since its foundation in 1996, the studio has established an international reputation for a series of buildings unique in the way they respond to local culture, context and climate.

The studio applies a core working methodology to all its projects which centres on discourse, extensive research, and prioritising modelling over drawing, combining analogue making with advanced digital technology. In each case, it seeks an essential position from which a complex set of questions come into focus. From this position begins an expansive process of iteration, thinking through context and change, often involving dozens of concept models to test the evolution of a design which conceives the building from the centre outwards: from interior programme to neighbourhood, urban fabric, wider infrastructures, and nature.

The success of this approach is evident in the distinct character of the projects the practice has generated, and the critical acclaim they have received for their ability to adapt to local context, culture and climate, their innovative use of daylight, materials and building techniques, and the extraordinary spaces they afford their users.

Gianni Botsford Architects’ work ranges from the cultural to the domestic, large-scale commercial architectures and masterplanning. Selected key projects include Light House, House in a Garden, and the Layered Gallery in London; Casa Ki-Ké in Costa Rica; Pink Sand Pavilion & Tower in The Bahamas; and Oppo Research & Development Tower, Chengdu, China. Current projects include Reciprocal House, Harley Road in London, and The El-Madany Estate in Northern Ireland.

The practice’s commitment to evolutionary design processes and an architecture of Local Adaptation roots in pioneering research combining technology and ecology at the Architectural Association, and continues with past and current teaching at the annual Studio in the Woods, The Royal College of Art, London Metropolitan University and the Welsh School of Architecture.