Flora Gathorne-Hardy is a landscape architect and Director of Topio. After studying geography at Cambridge University, she went on to complete a doctoral thesis there in community design in the field of affordable housing. This included a period as a Visiting Scholar at the University of California at Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Design.
Her research lead on to completing a Landscape Diploma at the University of Central England and then working as a landscape architect first in Liverpool and then in London on a wide range of projects, including public spaces for the Centre for Accessible Environments and school grounds for the Arts Council England. She also worked at the Chelsea Physic Garden where she discovered her passion for plants.
In 2005, Flora moved to Oxford to set up Topio. Her vision was to create a landscape architecture practice that could bridge the sciences and the arts, using creative research and communication skills to help develop highly sensitive and imaginative designs on the ground. She combines managing the practice with sculpting in clay and working as a trustee for various organisations.