Founded in Florence in 1988 by Laura Andreini, Marco Casamonti and Giovanni Polazzi, Archea is today a network of more than 100 architects who work in the firm’s seven different branches in Florence,  Milan, Rome, Beijing, São Paolo, Dubai and Teheran. The founding partners were joined in 1999 by Silvia Fabi who coordinates the design activities of Studio Archea in Florence.
The interests and research activities of the firm range from the landscape to the city, from buildings to design. Even if the focus is on architecture, the projects vary from graphic design to publishing, to exhibitions and events. The complementariness and the transition from a variety of scales ranging from criticism to the building site makes it possible to operate in a manner that contemplates all aspects and elements of architectural design. Each partner combines his or her principal interest with teaching and the conduction of research at the architecture faculties of Florence and Genoa, where architect Marco Casamonti is full professor of architectural and urban planning.
In 2008 Archea decided to adopt the ISO management system in order to optimize and rationalize the administrative and productive processes associated with architectural design, thus guaranteeing a constant quality level. The firm has therefore obtained UNI EN ISO 9001 certification from Moody International, both for the supply of architectural planning services and for the supervision of construction works.

In the course of the years the firm has participated in, and been invited to, highly prestigious national and international competitions, winning, among others, the competition for the Pirelli Office Building in the former Ansaldo area, the competition for the Archaeological Museum on the Salerno-Reggio Calabria highway and the competition by invitation for the construction of a more than 90 metres tall tower in the centre of Tirana, which is currently in construction.
The most important projects of the firm comprise: the Municipal library of Nembro (Bergamo),  the transformation of the former Wine Warehouse of the harbour of Trieste, the social and educatoinal centre of Serence, the UBPA B3-2 Pavilion at the World Expo 2010, the Green Energy Laboratory for the Jiao Tong University in Shanghai and the city of ceramics near Li Ling (Hunan), in China, which is nearing completion.