For a growing proportion of architects, a fulfilling career is not just about achieving commercial success, but also about engaging directly with the big issues of the day, and contributing to real social and environmental change. Few practices exemplify this approach better than Gbolade Design Studio, led by the husband and wife team of Lanre and Tara Gbolade.

From delivering sustainable housing to exhibiting at the Venice Biennale and working on the redesign of one of the UK’s busiest train stations, the practice seeks to blend its principles seamlessly with project delivery.

For Gbolade Design Studio, this means that work encompasses not just buildings, but the people, places and culture that surround them. The practice is currently involved in the new Waterloo Station masterplan for Lambeth council and Network Rail. Working alongside Grimshaw, it is focused on the placemaking strategy and on the meanwhile uses during implementation.

It’s a project with very real resonance for the practice, as its own studio is located on Westminster Bridge Road, and very much part of the immediate context of the station. “We’re in Waterloo, so we know the area well,” says Tara. “We understand the challenges, and the air and noise pollution.

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