Where Innovation Meets Arctic Elegance
Started back in 2011, honestly just two architects who couldn't stop sketching building ideas on napkins during coffee breaks. We'd spent years working at big firms, designing these massive glass towers that, let's be real, looked identical to everything else going up in the city.
One winter trip to Norway changed everything. The simplicity, the respect for nature, how buildings just... belonged there. We came back to Vancouver thinking - why can't we bring that sensibility here? Pacific Northwest meets Scandinavian restraint.
Now we're a team of 18, and every project still starts with that same question: does this belong here?
Key moments that shaped who we are
Founded the studio with just a laptop and way too much optimism. First office was literally a converted storage room.
Completed our first LEED Platinum residential project. The client took a chance on our weird Nordic-Pacific fusion concept.
Won the BC Architecture Award. Started getting calls from developers who actually cared about sustainability.
Opened our heritage restoration division. Turns out old buildings have a lot to teach us about sustainability.
The folks who started this whole thing
My grandparents emigrated from Bergen, so maybe Nordic design was always gonna be in my blood. Studied at UBC, then spent five years at a firm designing cookie-cutter condos. Soul-crushing, honestly.
What gets me excited? Finding that sweet spot where a building uses like 40% less energy but still makes people go "wow" when they walk in. I'm obsessed with natural light - spent probably too much time studying how it moves through spaces in different seasons.
Outside the office, you'll find me hiking the North Shore trails or tinkering with our off-grid cabin project up in Whistler. It's basically a live testing ground for crazy sustainable ideas.
Born and raised in Vancouver, studied architecture in Copenhagen - which pretty much explains my entire design philosophy. Scandinavian minimalism meets West Coast pragmatism.
I'm the guy who'll spend three days obsessing over a single corner detail. Elena jokes that I measure twice and cut... well, I measure like fifteen times. But that's how you get buildings that'll still look good in thirty years, not just in the Instagram post.
My background's in structural engineering, which means I'm always thinking about how things actually go together. Pretty materials are great, but if they can't handle a Vancouver winter or weren't sourced responsibly, we're not using them.
Currently restoring a 1920s Craftsman in Kitsilano and learning a ton about how they built things to last back then.
Look, we could fill this with fancy architectural theory, but here's what actually drives our work:
We've grown to 18 people - architects, designers, sustainability consultants, and a project manager who somehow keeps us all on schedule. Everyone here genuinely cares about this stuff. No corporate ladder climbers, just folks who want to design buildings that matter.
We do Friday design reviews where anyone can challenge any decision. Some of our best ideas came from our junior designer who wasn't afraid to say "but why not try it this way?" Pretty sure that's not how most firms operate, but it works for us.