Bureau Fraai

We are an architectural design studio based in Amsterdam. Our portfolio is broad, but it includes the specific expertise needed to design and deliver projects for both professional and private clients across a wide range of scales, needs, and contexts. As architects and product designers, we have more than 15 years of hands-on experience. This means we have built an extensive network of partners, enabling us to offer our clients work of the highest quality and full confidence in the management of budgets and the technical realization of projects.

For us, the distinctive character of each project emerges through a thoughtful balance of our three core values: analytical imagination, innovative craftsmanship and adaptive sustainability.

Analytical imagination

By analyzing a commission down to its essence, we are able to move beyond standard solutions. Our courage to dream, and to see apparent limits and boundaries as a breeding ground for endless possibilities, can turn the pragmatic into the poetic. This results in a process that creates something new, reveals hidden treasures and surprises everyone involved.

Innovative craftsmanship

We have an intrinsic interest in innovative craftsmanship. We are energized by raising the quality of a building through tailor-made elements, and by reinventing craftsmanship through the full application of the technical innovations of our time. This results in a refined material and technical aesthetic. We are experienced in bringing together the scale of the building as a whole with the scale of the smallest aesthetic and technical detail.

Adaptive sustainability

We are fascinated by the contemporary city as a rapidly evolving and changing whole; we believe that a smart and sustainable approach to architecture plays an important role in this evolution. On the one hand, a building must embody durability through timeless aesthetics and first-class technical and socio-cultural quality. On the other hand, a building must be able to withstand, or adapt to, the ever-changing demands of the times.

Fraaiheid (2012-2018) In 2012, we founded the design label Fraaiheid, together with Sjoerd Schaapveld, as a platform for designing, developing and selling our own products and furniture worldwide. Fraaiheid is not only a successful design label; it is also an important platform and showcase where we experiment and explore craftsmanship, materials, products, details and production techniques as part of our architectural work.