Leire Baños Zabala leads LBZ Arquitectura, a studio based in Donostia-San Sebastián that works across new-build projects, rehabilitation, interior design and furniture design. A graduate of the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura del País Vasco (ETSASS) in 2016, she understands the project as a process built together with the client, grounded in listening. There is not always a need to invent a new language, she maintains, when it is enough to understand the one the place already speaks. This way of working — attentive to context, rigorous in technical matters and sensitive to materials — turns every commission the studio takes on into a specific response rather than a repeated formula, with sustainability and energy efficiency built in from the earliest decisions of the project, not added at the end as one more finish.