Bureau LADA

LADA: Landscape, Architecture, Design, and Action We see these disciplines as defining the potential of architecture as a spatial practice. The future of the profession is inevitably changing due to the planetary vicious circle of resource exploitation, climate emergency, and social injustice. By combining the roles of the urbanist with the activist, the landscaper with the observer, and the grounding roles of mother and architect, our practice has evolved to meet the challenges of current reality. Our approach actively explores the roles of design in a post-growth society using architectural tools and methodologies. This set of skills—including reflection, repair, reuse, and resistance—defines the essence of our feminine spatial practice. We relate the actions of building with acts of restoring and growing, inviting people to reconnect with their own ‘sense of agency’ within a particular territory (Dodd 2020).

Bureau LADA (Landscape, Architecture, Design, Action) is a cross-disciplinary studio founded in 2012 by architect and urbanist Lada Hršak. Active in Amsterdam, Zagreb, Cairo, and Tangier, the studio specializes in inclusive architecture, research, and education. Exploring the future of the architectural discipline through collaborations with professionals from diverse fields such as environmental sciences, art, and humanities. They test the social and environmental capacity of the discipline through built interventions, as well as performative actions and publications, such as ‘Shallow Waters’ magazine and ‘Tanger Glossary’. Lada Hršak, a graduate of The Berlage Institute in Amsterdam and the University of Zagreb, also serves in advisory roles and holds teaching positions at esteemed institutions like the Design Academy Eindhoven and the Royal Academy of the Arts The Hague KBAK. Their work has gained international recognition and has been exhibited at diverse platforms including the Venice Architectural Biennale, Zagreb Design Week, African Crossroads, and the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam.

Our methodology employs a triangular knowledge exchange between research, practice, and education, where one act informs the other. Techniques of inquiry include listening, multivocality, mapping, drawing, prototyping, fabrication systems, sustainable material experiments, performative participation, and spatial glossary engagements. Mapping, drawing, prototyping and ‘performing’ serve as means for gaining new insights. Hybrid urban and peri-urban scapes, heritage sites, and territories of water are the primary sites we engage with. Teaching and learning at multiple educational institutions inform our practice and research, running parallel to curating educational curriculums, studios, and seminars both within and outside academic settings.