Studio Shaffer Lutsko is a Los Angeles–based practice for design and research working at the intersection of architecture, urbanism, and creative consultancy. Founded in 2022 by Gillian Shaffer, the studio engages diverse cultural and environmental contexts across the U.S. and Mexico. Each project is a focused inquiry into the constellation of material practices, urban ecologies, and cultural infrastructures—an exploration toward new spatial and social potentials. The studio’s ongoing work spans private residential projects, cultural and public spaces, as well as master planning initiatives, engaging communities and contexts through design that is both grounded and open to speculation. Through cross-scalar design inquiry and collaborative processes, the practice pursues clarity in form, flexibility over time, and spaces that foster collective agency—each shaped by site specificity and cultural context while seeking new possibilities for social cohesion and shared futures.
Gillian Shaffer is an architect, design researcher, and educator based in Los Angeles. She is the founding principal of Studio Shaffer Lutsko, a practice for architecture and urban design with ongoing projects in the United States and Mexico. Her work has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts (Design) and the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, and exhibited internationally at the La Biennale di Venezia, Fundamentals (2014), the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (2017), and in galleries across New York and Los Angeles. Before founding her practice, Shaffer worked in offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia, including J. Mayer H. (Berlin), Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA) (Berlin), Junya Ishigami + Associates (Tokyo), and Höweler + Yoon (Boston). She has taught architecture and urban design at UCLA Architecture and Urban Design, Pratt Institute, and Princeton, and currently teaches at the University of Southern California, School of Architecture. In 2022, she was named the Citizen Architect Fellow for her contributions to socially engaged and environmentally responsive design. Shaffer holds a Master of Architecture from Princeton University, where she also earned a Certificate in Media + Modernity, and a Bachelor of Architecture from Pratt Institute.
Past–Current Team & Collaborators: Paul Ruppert, Ilija Bentscheff, John Yurchyk, Cosa Buena, Taiyo Minami, Christian Maskrey, Daniel Yoo, Claudia Mejia Villalobos, Kaitelyn Haynes, Madison Rusch, Sean Wozniak, Kiara Sanchez, Annalyn Boothe, Christine Brady, Florian Lepinard, Ruchi Singhania, Chinmayi Suri, and Alex Schweder