Laura Andreini

A founding partner of the Archea firm, Andreini graduated with honours from the Architecture Faculty of Florence in 1990, completing her PhD at the same university in 1997 with the final discussion of her dissertation titled “The permanence of the concept of proportion from Renaissance to Modernism through the model of the Florentine palace”. Her PhD supervisor was Antonio D’Auria, with whom she began cooperating in 1992 within the context of the course in interior architecture and decoration. This represented the beginning of an intense activity in the field of teaching, which has continued over the years, parallel to her work as an architect and researcher.

In 1997/98 she was entrusted with the module on theory of contemporary architectural research for the 1 Design Workshop, held by Prof. Fabrizio Rossi Prodi, and the module on the typological and morphological characters of architecture for the 2 Design Workshop held by Prof. Aurelio Cortesi; these appointments were then confirmed for the academic years 1998/99 and 1999/00. The course centres on the typological and morphological characters of architecture, with particular reference to the model of the Florentine palace since Renaissance, to then develop the elements of continuity between the classical tradition and that of modernism, and analyse the architects and leading figures in the Fifties and Sixties of last century in Italy.


In 1999 she won the competition necessary to become assistant professor in architectural composition and town planning at the department for architectural planning of the University of Florence, and was entrusted with the 1 Architectural Design Workshop for the academic year of 1999/00. The didactic activities are organized in theoretical lectures, practical exercises and collective reviews of the work done individually by the students.
In the same faculty she has also held the 1course in Architectural Planning, and she currently holds the professorship in exhibition planning and industrial design and that of the 2 architectural design workshop for the graduate course in Architectural Sciences.

hIn 1988 she founded the Archea firm together with Marco Casamonti and Giovanni Polazzi. As a partner in the firm she conducts design and research activities in the field of architecture and industrial design, cooperating with some of the leading manufacturers of building elements and using the professional activity as a means of testing the positions assumed in relation to the contemporary architectural culture.


She has participated in national and international competitions and consultations as part of the firm, winning several first prizes: in 1988 in the competition for the office and shopping centre of Calenzano in Florence (with Ipostudio and Di Franco); in 2003 in the competition for the expansion of the harbour of Savona (with 5+1 and Pellegrini); for the design, upgrading and adaptation to new standards of the Michelangelo Camping in Florence; and in the international competition by invitation promoted by Pirelli Re and Morgan Stanley – together with Michael Maltzan Architecture – for the former Ansaldo complex in Milan, in the Greater Bicocca area in 2005.


In the last few years she has participated in the design of numerous wineries: in Italy with the expansion of the Antinori Winery in San Casciano Val di Pesa and in China with the Shangri-la Winery in Penglai, currently in construction, the Guizhou Winery complex and the Changli Winery. These projects have been followed by the design of the Sports Village for the Asian Games held in Doha in 2006 and the Li Ling World Ceramic Art City in China, currently in construction. Since 2006 she has participated in numerous competitions in China, including the one for the Meixi Lake Cultural Centre in Changsha and the one for the master plan of the new district of the Chinese city of Zhengzhou in 2011. In 2011 she has also participated in the competition by invitation for a hotel in Doha, Qatar, won by the firm.


Most of the architectural works have been reviewed on an international level in important magazines and books (Abitare, Casabella, Domus, Controspazio, L’Arca, in Italy, A&V and Disegno interior, in Spain, AIT and Detail in Germany, etc.) and invited to participate in important architecture events and exhibitions.