Philia
Magazine

Eilidh Izat is a Scottish architect and co-founder of Izat Arundell, an architectural practice rooted in a deep respect for landscape, craftsmanship, and the relationship between buildings and the communities they serve. Her early interest in architecture was shaped by her grandfather, fostering an appreciation for materials, making, and the role of architecture in everyday life. After studying architecture and gaining experience with international practices, she co-founded Izat Arundell with a focus on thoughtful, context-driven design.

Her approach brings together contemporary architecture, local materials, and traditional craftsmanship, with an emphasis on creating buildings that respond sensitively to their surroundings. Through close collaboration with craftspeople, she explores how architecture can foster a lasting connection between people and place. Her own home, Caochan na Creige, on the Isle of Harris, embodies this philosophy and was awarded the RIBA House of the Year 2025, recognising its considered relationship with the landscape and local craftsmanship.

Matteo Ferrari is an Italian architect based in Madrid and founder of Matteo Ferrari Studio. Since establishing the practice in 2015, he has worked internationally across retail, hospitality and residential projects, collaborating with both global brands and independent clients. His experience across different contexts and scales has shaped an approach grounded in sensitivity to place, material and the particular requirements of each project.

His work is defined by a continuous dialogue between international perspectives and local craftsmanship, rather than by a fixed or recognisable aesthetic. For Ferrari, architecture begins with an attentive reading of its context and brief, allowing each project to develop its own identity in response to its surroundings, purpose and circumstances.

Hugo Toro is a French-Mexican architect and multidisciplinary creative whose practice spans architecture, interiors, design, and art. Originally from eastern France, he graduated with a Master’s degree in Interior Architecture from Penninghen in Paris before completing a second Master’s degree in Architecture between Vienna and Los Angeles. From his Paris-based studio, Toro has built an international portfolio including the atelier of Villa Albertine in New York, the Michelin-starred restaurant PUR’ on Place Vendôme, JP at Louis Vuitton in Seoul, and the Orient Express La Minerva in Rome. His work is distinguished by a strong attention to atmosphere, materials, and craftsmanship.

Alongside his architectural practice, Toro works across furniture, drawing, painting, and sculpture. He unveiled his first furniture collection at Christie’s in 2022 and presented Aguas que murmuran at the Institut Culturel du Mexique in Paris in 2025. In 2026, his first solo exhibition in the United States, Ojo de Agua, was presented at Perrotin in New York, bringing together paintings, bronze sculptures, ceramics, and installation. Today, his architectural and artistic practices continue to explore the relationships between space, material, memory, and emotion.

Irene Goldberg has built a practice that crosses architecture, interiors and collectible design, moving between the conception of spaces and the creation of objects. Born in Venezuela in 1970, she relocated to Israel in 1983 and later studied at the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow, graduating in 1997. This ability to work across different scales has become integral to her approach, in which architecture and object-making are understood as part of a continuous creative language shaped by simplicity, materiality and emotional experience.

Goldberg co-founded Baranowitz & Goldberg Architects in 2017 before establishing her independent studio in 2025. Today, she works from the heart of Tel Aviv, where she shares a design gallery with her partner in life, Gal Gaon. The space provides a setting for her evolving collections of collectible design while remaining connected to her ongoing architectural and interior projects, allowing the different aspects of her practice to develop alongside one another.