Each project is a collective. Our collaborative work draws on the multidisciplinary skills of our team, but also on the exchanges and experiences of the people with whom we conceive and live the project. From conception to completion this involvement allows us to produce a sustainable approach valorising the physical and intellectual context of each project through a singular poetic statement.
Our creative environment is enriched by the diversity of Team and its extensive expertise focusing on new materials, innovative typologies and advanced modes of design and production.
After studying in France and Spain, Michel da Costa Gonçalves graduated in architecture with honours from ENSAPL in France. He later completed a Master’s degree in Emergent Technologies & Design at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London before co-founding RARE architecture and then DROO. Michel previously worked with Shigeru Ban in Paris, as project manager for the new Pompidou Centre. He was also project manager for Architecture Studio on projects in China, Greece and Saudi Arabia (Rotterdam Architecture Biennale 2004 selection).
He is Co-director and author of the urban living book series “Villes” (Edition Autrement). Publications include articles in AA Files, Tank and a contribution on evolutionary computing as part of Springer Verlage, Natural Series. In addition to practice, he teaches a studio at the Architectural Association.
Over the last few years, Michel has developed a number of projects with high profile engineering constraints. His interests in the integration of digital modelling and production tools in both the design and construction phases have contributed to the practice’s innovative approach and cost-effective bespoke solutions.
Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Amrita Mahindroo holds a Masters degree with Honors from MIT in Architecture and Urbanism, a Bachelors degree in Architecture with Honours from the University of Melbourne.
Amrita’s work actively bridges research and design to explore the implications of the big questions of macro-economics and emerging technologies, environmental and social change on our cities and how these filter down to the very tangible questions of striving to better the human experience of the built environment around us. Amrita works closely with local communities and education institutions alike to create strong public engagement on each project.
She regularly chairs Juries, Think tanks and urban development conferences to maintain a strong link to the wider community, including urban youth initiatives through workshops in schools. She has a breadth of experience in both private and public sector projects including Residential, Retail and Hospitality and Contemporary Art Museums and Urban regeneration plans, with projects in worldwide. Amrita has had the opportunity to lecture and publish widely across the US and Europe on her research including, UCLA, UPenn and MIT.
Harikleia Karamali + Pauline Billot + Marie-Christine Beris + Charlotte Jianoux + Maylis Pillet + Chiara Costanzelli + Alfredo Chavez Romero + Armand Guzhda + Alessandra Tagliatesta + Clara Saade + Baya Imadalou
All.
Eugenie Naert (FR) + Carl Greaves (AU) + Kai Hian Ong (SG) + Delphine Luboz (FR) + Yvonne Weng (CN) + Coralie Huon (FR) + Agata Borack (PO) + Robert W. de Miguel (ES) + Luca de Gaetano (IT) + Anne Paillard (FR) + Ido Sav (IE) + Julien Loiseau (FR) + Claude Ballini (LU) + Guillaume Appriou (FR) + Audrey Cousquer (FR) + Harikleia Karamali (GR) + Maria Bjerg Norkjaer (DK) + Alexandra Singer-Beider (FR) + Jacqueline Gray (AU) + Roberto Sanz Asensio (ES) + Daniela Covarrubias (US) + Roccardo Torresi (IT) + Oriana M. Cole (US) + Calvin Chua (SG) + Maria Capdevila (ME) + Fragiskos Konstantatos (GR) + Eugene Tan (SG) + Hussam Dakkak (SA) + Guan Xiong Wong (MY) + Pedro de Pascual Samper (ES) + Taeho Kim (SK) + Jean-Baptiste Geley (FR) + Gary Dupont (FR) + Anna Larkin (UK) + Duncan Gebbes (FR) + Valeria Garcia Abarca (ME) + John Naylor (UK) + Virginie Prie (FR) + Julie Maria Legaz (FR) + Kien Pham (VT) + Clara Garcia Puig (ES) + Kent Burns (NZ) + Tadeo Ciaurriz Taberna (ES) + Giorgio Paolini (IT) + CEline Benoiste (FR) + Joana Pedro (PT) + Rachel Kahlil (UK) + Nurit Moscovici Amar (IE) + Jo Foong (AU) + Teymour Benet Brady (ES) + Mawena Yehouessi (FR) + Vitor Fernandes (PT) + Hao Wen Lim (SG) + Ahmad Tahhan (JR) + Nadia dos Santos (PT) + Dominique Staindl (AU) + Adam Grzesik (PO) + Luiza Andreis (BR) + Karolina Malec (PO) + Carolina Gismondi (IT) + Marta Kluk (PO) + Nicolas Baran (US/FR) + Vaclav Suba (CZ) + Maciej Pitek (PO) + Julio Rufián Andújar (ES) + Thanisorn De vapalin (TH) + Lisa Rukavina (LU) + Giacomo Volpe (IT) + Eva Hürlimann (CH) + Marie-Christine Beris (CH) + Laura Gonzalez Gil (ES) + Alize Soubeyran (FR) + Arthur Brandlin (CH) + Pauline Billot (FR) + Biyi Sogbesan (UK) + Ana De Lima Carvalho (CH/BR) + Pedro Marcelino (FR) + Thomas Blain (UK) + Jonathan Kiener (FR) + Raphael Boscarto (CH) + Inigo Jiminez (ES) + Eleonore Gueyffier (FR) + Charlotte Jianoux (FR) + Maylis Pillet (FR) + Chiara Costanzelli (IT) + Alfredo Chavez Romero (ES) + Armand Guzhda (IT/AL) + Alessandra Tagliatesta (IT) + Clara Saade (FR) + Baya Imadalou (CA)
We are always looking for enthusiastic and creative people with an interest in upmarket international projects. If you are interested please email your CV and work sample pdf portfolio to cv@drooprojects.com.
DROO has opportunities in their London office.
We are looking for an enthusiastic and organised person with an interest in upmarket international projects. You should be self-motivated and be able to work independently. Knowledge of cad, 3d and a graphic suite is essential. Initially the internship will be for 2/3 months.
Through children’s books, lectures, exhibition, or higher education workshops, we are dedicated in passing on our engagement in the inclusive betterment of shared spaces. Using our personal journeys and the communal experience, we attempt to highlight the designer’s roles today.
If you wish to contact us to organise or participate in future events, please use info@drooprojects.com.
Heritage as cultural preservation should consider also encompassing the preservation of other embedded vital resources. Our proposal for an Urban factory for RIVP considers how to comfortably retain valuable craft manufacturing and light industry within our cities and adapting our buildings to suit shifting climatic needs. The HAM is a vertical factory in Paris,…
We are delighted to be awarded the FAIRE 2022 research grant for our “Stealth chimneys”. In the chaotic beauty of Parisian roofscapes, our proposal aims at collaboratively accompanying households in their transition away from their dependence on gas. Our research will focus on new types of infrastructure to support the installation of alternative clean technologies…
DROO will be speaking at the USC School of Architecture in Los Angeles, Monday 29h. It is an honor to open the lecture series Architecture ENGAGED.
We were delighted to be amongst the shortlisted firms for the future International Slavery Museum – National Museums Liverpool – in partnership with Henneghan Peng and Donald Insall. All the best to NML on this fantastic project. I was particularly touched by NML’s political and reconciliatory ambitions to both represent contemporary identity and acknowledge head on the…
We see our work as a chapter in the long lives of existing buildings, they have pasts and will have futures beyond us, and like layers of urban strata, our approach is always one of layering strands of the past, present, and future into our work. As such, we are delighted that our retrofit work…
“From venerable institutions to small practices, the days of architecture staying silent amidst complex societal and environmental issues are over. Or are they?” Amrita Mahindroo will join the debating panel at the Royal Academy (RA) as part of the Architecture Symposium Debate: Can architects make a difference? The joint event organised by the RA and…
After months of in house working and schooling, urban centres must engage with a set of new behaviours to retain their necessary importance. In the world where reuse and density should be encouraged, our City Approach project celebrates the increasing global reality of LIVE / WORK / SCHOOL / HOME. As celebrated through this latest…
The Next Space Think Tank tackled some of the biggest questions around the fragility of our urban eco-systems in the face of major environmental, social, healthcare and food security challenges. The day brought about many fantastic conversations and a strong sense of hope and responsibility as designers to be active agents of change. Here, sharing our…
DROO’s Amrita Mahindroo contributes to THE NEXT SPACE – an exciting think-tank event on the future of spaces. The prospective format organised by FRAME to coincides with the DutchDesignWeek 2021 in Eindhoven will result in a collective white paper on the future of spatial design. The Next Space is an iterative think-tank conceived by FRAME…
DROO’s Harikleia Karamali speaks at THE PLAN event set in Venice alongside the delayed Architecture Biennale 2021. The panel discussion part of PERSPECTIVE EUROPE 2021 forum reflects on how the pandemic may have affected architecture and ways to practice it. During this long pause we have been keen to preserve the iterative quality of our…
We are delighted to announce the promotion of Harikleia Karamali to associate. Harikleia has been an integral part of our team for the last 5 years. She brings immense creativity and energy to her work and has shown strong leadership of the London office. She has led a number of significant projects including Fulham Town…
Through contemporary re-writing of the primative ‘hut’ the house in its simplest and most recognizable expression becomes the founding element of our proposal. Seeking out ways to create a sense of Individuality within the collective housing that for reasons of economy of scale often results in the loss of social appropriation. Our treehouses within the…
