Studio Andrew Todd

STUDIO ANDREW TODD

STUDIO ANDREW TODD, an architecture and scenography practice active since 1999, is recognized as one of Europe's leading young firms.

The practice has completed projects throughout Europe for public and private clients, with a particular emphasis on spaces for the performing arts.

Practice director Andrew Todd collaborated for seven years with the theatre director Peter Brook on the book 'The Open Circle: Peter Brook's Theatre Environments,' an experience which has deeply informed the ethos of the practice.

We emphasise a collaborative approach, often working with other architects, always seeking to incorporate our clients as partners to the successful elaboration of a project.

In addition to project work, we have a commitment to research through publication, teaching and the development of new approaches to construction with industry leaders. We have developed a research organization, The Nomad Group, in association with Edwin Shirley Staging and Buro Happold, in order to give concrete form to these activities.

We believe:

Buildings are completed by their users; we write the script, or set the scene, for the user's intervention, and we seek as many opportunities as possible to allow creative development after delivery. A building should have the same comfort, functionality and beauty as a cherished item of clothing.

Buildings for culture should be economic to produce and easy to adapt for different creative purposes. We favour geometric rigour and simple forms as the key to adaptability, rather than costly high technology; buildings should be tools for conviviality rather than burdens on their users.

A profound attention to site, materials, history and the usefulness of the building always creates a more compelling result than a simplistic preoccupation with an applied image or style.

Good design only results from an intelligent confrontation with constraints: whether of the brief, the site, the budget, regulations, structural and material feasibility, or our own prejudices and limitations. A good project is always the fruit of an impassioned struggle.