Both born at Massa Marittima, Giulio Conti in 1981 and Bernardo Claus in 1980, they graduated from the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture (Switzerland), where they took design courses with the major names in modern architecture, including Mario Botta, Peter Zumthor, Manuel and Francisco Aires Mateus, Carme Pinos and Esteban Bonell.

After working abroad, they returned to Italy in 2010 to establish Studio Associato Conti & Claus. They built their own Studio/Atelier in Follonica, which was the scene for a report in Episode 09 of Undercostruction TV in June 2011, and has been included in the “Contemporary Architecture Itineraries” published by ETS and featured in numerous trade magazines. In June 2011 they won first prize in the competition to remove the architectural barriers in Grosseto Cathedral, a project completed in 2012 and inaugurated in January 2013.

They work both in Italy and abroad, taking part in concept and design tenders for public and residential buildings, with the aim of combining functionally rational spaces with a architectural whole which is sustainable in terms of both construction and social impact. A simple architecture focussed on sensory perception, which enables an emotional experience mediated by materials, light and surfaces, attentive to details, the expressive power of construction and the relations between man and spaces.