“‘First life, then spaces, then buildings – the other way around never works.’

”
— Jan Gehl

The practice

EVA Studio is a London-based research and design practice. Since 2015 our team has delivered various projects from London, Haiti and Lebanon. 

EVA Studio is a RIBA chartered practice since 2017.

EVA founders have a combined wealth of experience in architecture and design, having worked for renowned practices, as well as having worked for several years in developing countries such as Haiti and Lebanon.

Between London and Port-au-Prince, our practice has a team of over ten talented architects, urban designers, site engineers with different backgrounds and a broad experience and expertise.

EVA’s portfolio aims at undertaking projects with a social agenda.

Our portfolio extends over a wide range of projects of different scales from public spaces, community infrastructure, schools to housing.

Our clients comprise  for local authorities and international organisations such as Barnet Council, Transport for London, Global Communities, American Red Cross, USAID and UN Habitat, as well as local foundations such as FOKAL.

We are used to work on multi-stakeholders projects, including government institutions, and local grassroots as well as local artists and artisans.

Approach

People and places are at the core of our practice’s ethos. Community-based research helps us identify and understand the emergent processes, the vernacular, as well as the historical roots of a given place, integrating them into design solutions, aims to achieve an architecture that is inherently human.

We see architecture as more than just design.

For us, it is an inclusive process based on collaboration. Through different levels of public engagement, we are able to explore a community’s vision and aspirations and make social places that promote inclusion, equality and urban resilience.

We provide innovative solutions to the challenges and issues that exist in communities of diverse backgrounds.

Central to our approach is a community engagement process to address the local needs, priorities and aspirations.

We adopt “top-down” and “bottom-up” strategies, where local government and grassroots become integral to the implementation of the design.

Architects, as process makers, may play a key role in facilitating the conversation between stakeholders of urban development and local communities.

Our work is founded on the research of a project’s context from a cultural perspective, which encompasses local language, daily habits, locally-available technology and where the interaction of local traits develops into patterns that define the identity of a place.