Studio AR&D Architects

Studio AR&D Architects is an architecture and design practice based in Los Angeles and Palm Springs. The studio's work is rooted in the relationship between architecture and landscape, and in the belief that the two should be conceived as a single environment.

Each project begins with its place. Landscape, climate, light, views and the ways people inhabit a site become the framework from which the architecture develops. Rather than imposing a predetermined style, we look for an architecture particular to those conditions and to the people who will live within it.

Material is central to this process. Stone, wood, plaster, concrete and glass are considered not simply as finishes, but for the way they establish weight, texture, warmth and permanence. Light and shadow become equally important materials—revealing surfaces, defining thresholds and changing the experience of a space throughout the day.

Architecture and landscape develop together. Buildings extend into gardens and courtyards; walls frame views and create privacy; deep overhangs and recesses provide shade and transition. Interior and exterior are not treated as opposing conditions, but as parts of a continuous spatial experience.

This same attention continues through construction. We remain closely involved with builders, craftspeople and consultants, working through details in the field and allowing the realities of making, to inform the finished architecture.

The result is architecture intended to feel grounded in its place, deliberate in its materiality, and increasingly personal with time.

Sean Lockyer, AIA

Sean is the founding principal and lead architect for Studio AR&D Architects. His choice for the direction of the firm has always been one that speaks to the craft and alliance between both architecture and the landscape. Since its inception, the firm began to truly explore the poetic relationship of space and materiality amongst interior and exterior environment.

Sean continues to develop the deeper relationships and coexistence of material and space and their influences on our everyday lives. He has helped cultivate a body of work that is deeply influenced by the environment and the sense. He enjoys the time within the firm’s offices as much as on the construction sites working closely with the builders and craftsmen breathing life into the firms designs.

Sydney Brewer
Luis Garcia
Zayomi De La Barreda
Amanda Woo

Studio

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Amritha Varshini
Bobby White
Katie Yuan
Ani Rodriguez