Stepping out as a practice

We first met at Cooper Union in 2009 when we were both studying architecture. After graduating we moved to Stockholm where we worked in separate offices, occasionally collaborating between the offices and occasionally outside of them. In 2018 we took the decision to focus on our own work. Shortly after we were given the opportunity by James Taylor-Foster and Kieren Long to produce work for a group show at ArkDes, Sweden’s Center for Architecture and Design. This was our first formal commission as an office, one which we see as our “stepping out”, i.e., presenting our interests, approach and ambitions as a practice. 

Critiquing a stereotypical image

Like many of our colleagues in Stockholm we don’t like to play into the image of the heroic architect or that the production of architecture is in and of itself something heroic. Much of the way we organise the relationships between our practice, teaching and personal lives is intended to actively challenge and critique the image of the heroic architect. 

Responding to projects

Our practice is small and we try to resist the emergence of hierarchies. This allows us to be exceptionally flexible with working spaces and working relationships. Where we work has typically been spread over a varying network of spaces, responsive to the needs of a project and it’s collaboration rather than taking place in a fixed location and form. 

The reality of the profession

An early realisation in our lives as employees was the extent to which production of architecture often demands more and more for less and less. Moving up from intern to junior architect to project manager only opened our eyes to how this trend is pervasive at every level of an office and is almost inescapable in the way the office relates to agents outside of itself. This realisation has motivated many of the decisions in our practice, not to mention the desire to start it in the first place. 

Taking care and preserving equity

As such a young practice our most present objective is to find ways to be intentional about how our practice develops over the coming years. Our hope is that we can always move towards a more equitable form of practice by being careful with the projects we start, how we do them and how we relate to the people involved in doing them with us.