Flora Gathorne-Hardy is an ecological artist and landscape architect. After studying geography at Cambridge University, she went on to complete a doctoral thesis in community design. She was also a Visiting Scholar at the University of California at Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Design.
Her research lead to a Landscape Diploma at the University of Central England. She then worked on a wide range of projects first in Liverpool then London. These projects included policy research on school design and community involvement in planning. She also worked at the Chelsea Physic Garden where she discovered her passion for plants.
In 2005, Flora moved to Oxford and founded Topio as an ecological research and landscape design practice. Since 2009, Flora has been based on an organic farm. Here, her practice has been enlivened by a deepening relationship with nature and the evolution of new forms of collaborative enquiry.