About

VILAA is an international award-winning architectural practice led by Lara Yegenoglu specialising in radical design solutions for a given cultural and social context.

With a primary focus on social movements, collective quality and community, our work aims to address the spatial constraints of the built environment and their effects on an ever-changing society. Working through a series of analytical, conceptual and physical processes we like to challenge user experience and transformation over time by developing new urban models that will accommodate incremental changes of social patterns and behaviours. Integral to our design approach is the scale of the individual and its relation to the Umwelt. Remapping both the city and the landscape from the smallest detail to its surrounding framework, we encourage new modes of inhabitation, perception, and encounter.

Inspired by vernacular techniques and elements, our work is fundamentally driven by the sustainable and innovative use of materials and how those can contribute to a more tangible perception of space.

Engaging with projects of all scales, we cover various stages from concept design to construction.

LARA YEGENOGLU is a registered architect in Germany. She has worked at WilkinsonEyre, Serie Architects and Sevgili Yapi. Whilst working on Battersea Power Station, she acquired in depth knowledge on exposed structures including bridges, concrete cores and steelwork, which informed her design strategy of applying structural finesse to the detailing of architectural elements. With climate change playing a bigger role in the building industry year by year, Lara developed a high interest in combining architecture with a sustainable approach. In addition to economic and ecological factors, her motivation as an architect derives from the social aspects of sustainability. Issues such as neighbourhood complexity and social movements across urban and rural territories form the driving factor for her architectural vision to rethink and create innovative and user-oriented spaces. Her work has been exhibited and published in London and Miami. While leading her own architectural practice, she has also acted as an architectural consultant for WilkinsonEyre and Booth Welsh Engineering. She has taught at The Bartlett School of Architecture, Oxford Brookes University and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, where she was a Unit Tutor in Intermediate 14. Lara is currently leading the BA Architecture Concept Design & Building Typologies Course at the IU International University of Applied Sciences and is a BA Design Tutor at the i.sd Institute of Structure and Design at the Architecture Faculty of the University of Innsbruck.

Awards:
Passive House Award Austria (2023)
Dennis Sharp Prize Commendation (2015)
Henry Florence Studentship Award (2012)
Technical Studies Award (2012)
Nicholas Pozner Prize Nomination (2011)