Learning from the Local: Designing Responsively for People, Climate and Culture

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Date: Wednesday 18 March 2026 Time: 12 to 1pmRIBA publishes a range of books designed to support architects throughout their careers. This course is delivered by the book’s author, Piers Taylor, who will share expert insights and practical guidance based on their work. What does it mean for architecture to belong to its place today? In a world shaped by global supply chains, generic urban forms, and accelerating ecological crisis, the idea of the “local” is more contested – and more necessary – than ever. In this session, Piers Taylor, author of Learning from the Local (RIBA Publishing, 2025), explores how architects can move beyond superficial vernacular gestures and instead work with the social, material, and ecological realities of place. Drawing on themes from the book, he examines how meaningful locality emerges not through appearance but through process – through community authorship, material provenance, ecological entanglement, and long-term attunement to context. Through international case studies – from grassroots civic projects to adaptive housing frameworks and ecologically embedded pedagogical buildings – the talk will illuminate a diverse set of practices that challenge conventional expectations of what “fitting in” looks like. Taylor will unpack how architects can design with, rather than for, communities and landscapes, and how buildings can co-evolve with the cultures and ecologies that sustain them. Offering practical insights for practitioners, educators, and policymakers, this session invites attendees to rethink locality as a verb – something enacted through collaboration, negotiation, and care – and to consider how architecture might cultivate forms of belonging that are innovative, low-carbon, and socially grounded.Learning outcomes: Reframing ‘the Local’ as process and relation: Understand locality as an evolving network of social, material and ecological relationships, enabling more grounded and context-responsive design approaches. Applying participatory and situated design methods: Learn strategies for engaging communities, materials and places as co-authors in the design process, informed by case studies such as East Quay. Designing for co-evolution and circular futures: Develop the ability to integrate adaptability, circular material flows and regenerative principles, recognising buildings as frameworks that co-evolve with their wider ecological and cultural systems. SpeakerPiers Taylor Piers is an Architect and Professor of Knowledge Exchange in Architecture at UWE, having formerly taught at the Architectural Association and the University of Cambridge. He studied in Sydney and the UK and was awarded an anniversary scholarship for his PhD, which examined the consequences of architectural making in a participatory context. Piers is founder of Invisible Studio, a multi-award-winning practice operating through collaboration, experimentation, research and education. His research explores how material practice addresses social and political questions and how we design, plan and govern for social change. His work includes the National RIBA Award-Winning Wolfson Tree Management Centre, Room 13 and East Quay.Please noteEach recording will expire 12 months after enrolling onto the module For more information on this course, or if there are no places available, please email us, or call +44 (0)20 7307 5355 to talk to a member of the team. Please view the Terms and Conditions for more information. Show more