L BOFFI STUDIOS - DESIGN ETHIC
The most inventive solutions emerge at the edges: between art and architecture, between theory and utility, between the speculative and the material. Intersections — like ecological ecotones — are where complexity thrives and new ideas take root.
The studio's work spans disciplines because it's essential: rigorous investigation strengthens intuition, conceptual thinking sharpens practical design, and beauty gains depth when it's grounded in context. Whether crafting a product, shaping a space, or developing public projects, L Boffi Studios approaches each project as a living system — with attention to form, function, and the environments it touches.This is design as inquiry, design as infrastructure, and design as a quietly radical act of care.
ABOUT LIZA
Liza Boffi is a Harvard-trained architect, bringing systematic spatial thinking to digital product design, architecture, and public art. In 2025, Boffi founded L Boffi Studios, a multi-disciplinary art and design studio based in Pittsburgh, PA. The studio playfully investigates a practice model that spans design disciplines while maintaining thoughtful rigor and ecological sensitivity.
Shaped by exceptional mentors, Boffi served as Teaching Assistant to Jeanne Gang, the most influential female architect of our time, and completed her graduate thesis at Harvard GSD under Krzysztof Wodiczko, recipient of the Hiroshima Art Prize. Now, as Special Faculty at Carnegie Mellon's School of Architecture, she aims to carry this legacy forward to young designers.
Boffi has contributed to many award-winning projects at renowned design firms, including Ikon 5 Architects (#7 of 'Best Architecture and Design Firms in New York' - Architizer.com), and 1100 Architect (#7 of 'Best Residential Design Firms in New York City' - NYC Architects). Each has deepened her design expertise in translating complex client needs into elegant systems-informed solutions.
TEACHING
48-640: Praxis II - Carnegie Mellon University '25
Architecture is a modulator of complex cultural and historical flows. This graduate-level integrated systems studio intensively explores, evaluates, and expands the role that tectonic cultures and their associated modes of architectural expression play in shaping our world.
48-100: Poiesis I - Carnegie Mellon University '24
This introductory undergraduate studio investigates the role and process of architectural design in practice.
LECTURES
Planet Tree - Carnegie Mellon University '25
Haven 2x5 CMU CS+CFA Mixer - Carnegie Mellon University '25
Giant Inhabitable Subwoofers /Pre-Thesis - Carnegie Mellon University '25
INVITED REVIEWS
48-410: Reparative Infrastructures - Studio Final Review '25
48-410: Past Futures, Mississippi River Delta - Final Review '25
48-205: Second Year Option Studio: Unlikely Hybrids - Final Review '25
48-205: Articulating Forces I Second Year Option Studio - Interim Review '25
48-205: Second Year Option Studio: Unlikely Hybrids - Interim Review '25
48-314D: Object/Noun/Verb - Interim Workshop '25
48-205: Second Year Option Studio: ONE TO ONE - Final Review '25
48-305: Architecture Design Studio: Praxis Studio II - Final Review '25
48-410: Past Futures, Mississippi River Delta - Interim Review '25
48-200: Poiesis Studio III - Exhibition/ Final Review '25
48-626 A1 Mini: Bending Active Systems - Final Review '25
48-410: Reparative Infrastructures - Studio Interim Review '25
48-557: Formless as an Operation - Exhibition / Final Review '25
48-410: ASOS: Studio Interim Review '24
48-400: Praxis III - Studio Final Review '24
48-300: Praxis I - Studio Final Review '24
48-300: Praxis I - Studio Interim Review '24 (x2)
48-630: Praxis I - Studio Interim Review '24
ARC-1204: Vertical Dwelling - Final Review '24
ARC-1204: Vertical Dwelling - Interim Review '24
ART
Liza paints botanical watercolors that investigate the hidden architecture of the natural world. She is a member of the American Watercolor Society, and the American Society of Botanical Artists. Her work can be viewed at ASBA-art.org, and purchased on Etsy at Water and Leaf | LB.
CONTACT
Do you want to start a project? Send an email to Liza at [liza at lcboffi dot com], or make an appointment for a free 30 minute virtual consultation.