Studio
Apicella Studio is an architecture and design consultancy founded by Lorenzo Apicella.
Over the last 30 years Lorenzo has designed buildings, interiors, exhibitions, event environments, and brand installations for clients as diverse as The British Museum, Virgin Atlantic, Citibank, Harley Davidson, Clear Channel International, and AMC Television.
Lorenzo Apicella RIBA, AIA
Founder
Born in Ravello Italy, Lorenzo Apicella grew up in the UK. He studied architecture at Nottingham University and Canterbury College of Art.
Graduating top of his year in 1981, he joined the US office of Skidmore Owings and Merrill—first as an assistant designer for the 70-storey Allied Bank Plaza in downtown Houston, and later on the concept stages of numerous additional tower projects. That experience led him to further post-graduate studies at the Royal College of Art in London; designing alternatives to Mies van der Rohe’s high rise Mansion House Square project in London for CZWG architects; interior designs for the Diplomatic Club in Riyadh by Frei Otto/Omrania Architects; and international architecture, design and exhibition projects for the communications agency Imagination.
In 1988 he established Apicella Architecture and Design—later Apicella Associates. His clients included The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London’s Science and Natural History Museums, Philips Electronics, ICL, Pepsi, Volvo, Ford, La Perla, Connect Austria, and Virgin Atlantic.
In 1998, after 10 years completing a wide range of award-winning projects ranging from buildings and interiors to exhibitions, event environments, and mobile structures, he merged his studio with Pentagram Design, becoming first a partner/owner of Pentagram London, and subsequently of Pentagram San Francisco. In 2017 he established Apicella Studio.
Lorenzo’s published projects include: Clear Channel International’s London HQ and its RIBA Award winning neighbor the Adshel Research and Design Centre; Consumer and Private-Client branches worldwide for Citibank; a comprehensive interior design program for Virgin Atlantic’s entire fleet of aircraft, including the award-winning redesign of Virgin’s Upper Class aircraft cabins; a new country-wide branch interiors program for Rabobank, Holland’s second largest high-street bank; ‘World Architecture Award’ winning showrooms on 5th Avenue, New York for top brand shoe designers Jimlar; Exhibitor Magazine’s ‘Best of 30 Years’ award-winning exhibition environment in Denver for architectural audio company Sonance; eight new buildings for M+T Bank, including a new regional flagship branch in Buffalo, New York; the AIA Award-winning Central Branch building in Brooklyn and Entrance Pavilion at M&T Bank’s Landmark Headquarters in Buffalo; and the celebrated ‘Mad Men’ monument for AMC Television in Time Life Plaza, New York.
Lorenzo has chaired numerous RIBA Awards, UK Civic Trust awards, and design competition juries, including the AIA Awards for Southern California in San Diego, the World Architecture Festival Awards in Barcelona, and the ‘Inside Festival ’ Awards. He has presented his work at lectures and conferences internationally, has been a visiting lecturer at schools of architecture and design in the UK and US, and has acted as an External Examiner at Oxford Brookes School of Architecture, the School of Design at UCE Birmingham, and the Royal College of Art in London.
Lorenzo is a member of both the Royal Institute of British Architects and the American Institute of Architects, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
