Learning from the Local: architect Piers Taylor’s new book

An exploration of context-specific, locally sourced, and sustainable architecture, Learning From the Local is the new book by British architect and broadcaster Piers Taylor. As the world questions the sustainability of globalised design, a new architectural movement is gaining momentum—one that seeks not to replicate tradition but to reimagine the ‘local’ in radically contemporary ways.

Learning from the Local: Designing responsively for people, climate and culture, a new publication written by celebrated architect and broadcaster Dr Piers Taylor, and published by RIBA Publishing, brings together over 30 of the world’s most compelling architectural case studies to investigate this powerful shift. Far from nostalgic calls to restore lost traditions or imitate the vernacular, Learning from the Local explodes the myth that identity in architecture must be rooted in style. Instead, it focuses on how geography, geology, waste, ecology, community engagement and local making processes are shaping a new era of low-carbon, place-responsive design. These case studies, which span countries as diverse as Burkina Faso, Japan, Greece, Pakistan and Australia, represent some of the most innovative and best-resolved architectural responses to context and culture from across the globe. Featured architects include globally-recognised figures such as Frank Gehry, Glenn Murcutt, Kéré Architecture and Lina Ghotmeh, alongside a host of rising talents whose work champions new definitions of localism.

Takasugi-an by Terunobu Fujimori | image courtesy of © Edmund Sumner

Piers Taylor Redefines the Meaning of Belonging in Architecture

The author, Dr Piers Taylor, is an award-winning architect celebrated for his rugged, pared-back design aesthetic and hands-on approach to building. As founder of Invisible Studio, Taylor has led projects that challenge architectural conventions and embrace material experimentation. In parallel with his design work, Taylor has forged a distinguished career in broadcast media, co-presenting the acclaimed BBC Two series The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes and The House That £100k Built, among others—introducing audiences worldwide to architecture that is imaginative, resourceful and deeply contextual.

‘Architecture today is more plural, more situated, and more entangled than ever before. In the shifting terrain of the 21st century, the binary of local versus global has been destabilised. We inhabit a world where climate emergency, technological flux, geopolitical fragmentation, and social inequity demand new forms of architectural engagement. “Learning from the Local emerges from this context—not as a manual or doctrine, but as a set of overlapping investigations into what it means for architecture to ‘belong.’ The question is no longer ‘How should buildings speak of their place?’ but rather ‘How can they?’ This shift implies an openness to contingency, to process, and to the voices of others—human and nonhuman,’ shares Dr Piers Taylor, the author.

Ningbo Museum by Wang Shu of Amateur Architecture Studio | image courtesy of © Amateur Architecture Studio

Pritzker Prize-winning architect, Glenn Murcutt, adds ‘From the time I first met him in Sydney in 2001, Piers Taylor has always had a wonderful energy and yet his work is always beautifully simple and resolved. But his work is more than that. We share the restless search for an architecture generated by a responsibility to the land and a meaningful connection to place and its culture. He is experimenting with ideas. He is experimenting with materials that are local and unassuming. He understands how materials can be assembled; simply and without being too precious. There’s a magnificent inventive energy in what he does. Architecture must always be about experimenting with ideas, and moving them on—testing them and improving on them. When I’m asked which of my buildings is a favourite, I must always answer: the next one. I think Piers is also driven to make the next one really count.’

Stirling Prize-winning architect, Peter Clegg, comments ‘Piers Taylor is himself a living example of Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. He often makes reference to the seminal 1966 text by Venturi and Scott Brown which changed the course of architectural theory and in this book the focus is on the contradiction between the global and the local. Inevitably, he concludes that we need to accept and rejoice in the ‘both/and’ rather than the ‘either/or.’ Visually rich with over 200 pages of full-colour photography, drawings and plans, Learning from the Local is both an inspirational resource for architects and a timely manifesto for how we might build more responsibly in an age of ecological and cultural complexity.

Gando Primary School by Kéré Architecture | image courtesy of © Erik-Jan Ouwerkerk

Sanjaynagar Slum Redevelopment Project by Community Design Agency | image courtesy of © Rajesh Vora

House in an Olive Grove by Invisible Studio | image courtesy of © Piers Taylor

Amateur studio by Invisible Studio | image courtesy of © Piers Taylor