Studio

About Architecture is an interdisciplinary architecture studio founded in Tbilisi in 2018. The practice works across architecture, research and education, approaching architecture as a field shaped by social, material, territorial and cultural conditions rather than as an isolated object.

Each project begins with a critical reading of what is already there — the geography, structures, traces, forces and contradictions that define a place. These conditions are not treated as background, but as material. Context is not something to imitate, but something to read, edit and reorganise. Architecture becomes a way of making existing conditions more visible while introducing new ones.

The studio is interested in rethinking familiar architectural types and extending their capacity beyond conventional roles, creating frameworks for new forms of use, occupation and collective life.

Rather than pursuing a fixed formal language, About Architecture works through structure, type, proportion, material and spatial relationships. The ambition is not to produce autonomous objects, but precise interventions capable of altering how a place is occupied, understood and shared.

Vano Ksnelashvili – Founder & Principal

Vano received an MA in Architecture and Urban Design in Vilnius in 2010. His early professional experience developed across London, Seoul, Vilnius and Tbilisi, exposing him to different architectural cultures and modes of practice before founding About Architecture in 2018. His work has since been recognised through a number of architectural competitions and awards, spanning cultural, civic and urban projects.

Alongside practice, Vano has been actively involved in architectural discourse and international professional networks. In 2018, he was one of the invited participants of the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial, and in the same year became an independent expert for the EU Mies Award — Fundació Mies van der Rohe.

From 2020, he also taught at the Visual Arts, Architecture & Design School (VA|A|DS), where he co-led the design studio re–city, focused on context, urban transformation and the evolving spatial conditions of Tbilisi.

Awards
  • Nominee for the 2024 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Awards, 2024

  • Nomination for the National Architecture Awards in Lithuania (NAA), 2023

  • Emerging Architects of the year - Awarded by Lithuanian Architecture Union & LMKA, 2023

  • 2nd Prize Winner – Nikozi Art Palace Competition, 2021

  • 2nd Prize Winner – Domus Residential District Competition, 2020

  • 1st Prize Winner – Vilnius Pedestrian Bridge Competition, 2019

  • 1st Prize Winner – Kaunas Pedestrian Bridge Competition, 2018

  • Global Lithuanian Award – 6th Global Leaders Award, 2018

  • 1st Prize Winner – Yangjaegogae Eco Bridge Competition, 2017

Lectures
  • re-city for TU Delft (Borders & Territories) – Delft, 2024

  • re-city for Gerrit Rietveld Academie – Tbilisi, 2023

  • re-city for ETH Zurich Archirecture faculty and Christ & Gantenbein Studio – Tbilisi, 2022

Publications

Website designed by Lorenzo Mason Studio