British architect Piers Taylor is calling for a revolutionary shift toward locally-responsive architecture in his new book "Learning from the Local," published with the Royal Institute of British Architects. The Invisible Studio founder advocates for a "radically local approach" to contemporary architecture that moves beyond superficial design trends to embrace deeper connections with local climate, communities, and culture.

Taylor's book features more than 30 case studies from renowned architects including Frank Gehry, Glen Murcutt, and Diébédo Francis Kéré, demonstrating how contextual design can create more meaningful and sustainable buildings. The architect emphasizes that his call for localized design is not a "romantic plea" for pre-industrial or vernacular architecture, but rather a push for "radically contemporary" methods of embedding projects into their specific contexts.

"It isn't so much a manifesto, but it is a call to all of us who care about the built environment to move beyond the shallow comfort of imitation and engage with a deeper, messier work," Taylor explained. He stressed that the book contains no examples of projects that call themselves vernacular, instead showcasing an eclectic mix of styles, typologies, and scales that demonstrate how a project's beauty stems from its connection to its environment.

According to Taylor, this approach requires the architecture industry to fundamentally change its mindset and relinquish some control in the design process. "What needs to change radically is actually the mindset of architects," he stated. "Unless we challenge how buildings are procured and conceived culturally by architects, we will end up with faceless, homogenized infrastructure that is in the pocket of power, money and politics."

The book highlights ten key projects that exemplify this philosophy of local responsiveness. Diébédo Francis Kéré's Gando Primary School in Burkina Faso demonstrates how modest local resources can be transformed into architectural intelligence through community engagement and climatic logic. Built with local earth by community hands and featuring a double roof of clay and steel for ventilation, the project shows that sustainable architecture grows from reciprocity rather than technology.

In Somerset, England, the East Quay project by Invisible Studio and Ellis Williams Architects showcases community-led architecture. Conceived by the local social enterprise Onion Collective, the building combines artists' studios, workshops, galleries, and accommodation in a structure governed and owned by the town itself, proving that belonging can emerge through collective will and civic imagination.

Andrés Jaque and the Office for Political Innovation's Reggio School in Madrid redefines local architecture by using materials including nearby-harvested cork, surplus windows, and repurposed components. The school makes material provenance visible, turning sustainability into storytelling where the building itself becomes a teacher, showing students how matter, waste, and energy circulate through the world.

Other featured projects include Invisible Studio's House in an Olive Grove in Corfu, built without removing a single olive tree and constructed with in-situ concrete textured with reused formwork and olive stones. Wang Shu's Ningbo History Museum demonstrates regionalism for the contemporary city, using thousands of reclaimed bricks and tiles from demolished villages to weave fragments of the local past into a monumental civic form.

The Community Design Agency's Sanjaynagar Slum Redevelopment project replaces informal settlements with permanent housing through intense community participation, where residents co-design their homes and decide on layouts, materials, and shared spaces. This approach transforms 'slum clearance' into civic renewal, proving that social justice and architectural intelligence can work together.

Sarah Wigglesworth and Jeremy Till's Stock Orchard Street in London combines a home and architectural practice using straw bales, sandbags, timber, and recycled materials, all exposed and celebrated. Japanese architect Terunobu Fujimori's work, including treehouses and tea rooms, celebrates the poetic and eccentric aspects of local architecture through humor and experimentation with natural materials.

Taylor's philosophy emphasizes that architects must look at "quite literally the territory and the networks that your project sits within and draw on those things." He believes this approach can provide ammunition for inventing new ways of building that are simultaneously rooted in local conditions, offering a path toward more meaningful and sustainable architecture that serves communities rather than abstract design ideals.