About

A full-service architecture design network in six locations.

UNStudio, founded in 1988 by Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, is an international network specialising in architecture, interior architecture, product design, urban development and infrastructural projects.

With six full-service international offices in Amsterdam, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Dubai and Melbourne and over 300 employees from 27 countries, our streamlined structure enables us to spend less time organising and more time designing and collaborating with our clients.

UNStudio’s mission is to design for lasting impact and contribute to the societal challenges of urbanisation, climate change, ageing populations and socioeconomic inequality. Driven by purpose and focused on solutions, we create value by designing for the implications of these megatrends on our built environment. Designs that make our lives healthier, have little impact on the planet, but a lasting impact on our cities - and people.

UNStudio’s current Board consists of Ben van Berkel, Caroline Bos, Gerard Loozekoot, Astrid Piber, Arjan Dingste, Hannes Pfau, Philippe Smit (Managing Director a.i.) and Matthieu Bletgen (CFO) closely supported by a strong group of long-term Directors and Associate Directors.

Vision

Future-proofing the future

As what we design today is normally built in three to five years’ time, we’re used to working with the future in mind - but that’s changing faster than ever before.

Even the most accurate predictions can be made redundant by a sudden advance in technology or global phenomena.

To ensure we don’t waste materials or make investments that are no longer sustainable or appropriate in today’s world, we develop strategies that not only anticipate the future, but possible changes to that future as well.

UNStudio is also committed to the promotion and practice of sustainable design, with environmental issues like social and ecological sustainability being considered right from the start of a project. And we are dedicated to making every project both financially and socially feasible, a combination that we call ‘attainable design’.

Our sights are set on creating and contributing to a greener, healthier and smarter built environment so that users can focus more on fostering stronger future communities.

We believe that the key to ‘future-proofing the future’ is knowledge. For the last decade, we have focused on expanding our understanding of trends and practices in architecture and beyond.

That’s why we’ve dedicated our UNSx and UNSFutures teams to researching new forms of culture, methodologies, materials and technology that are reshaping the world.

The results contribute to our mission of producing user-centric designs that are adaptive, resilient and future-proof, whatever the future may bring.

International Project Experience

Collaborating, working and learning on a global scale

More than 30 years of successfully completing projects across Asia, Europe and North America have given us a huge wealth of practical and theoretical experience: what we learn from a project in Singapore, for example, makes it significantly easier to implement the same knowledge in Dubai or London.

Completed projects include the Erasmus Bridge, Arnhem Central Station, the Mercedes-Benz Museum, the Doha Metro Network, Raffles City Hangzhou and the Hanwha HQ Remodelling. We are also working on Southbank by Beulah, Booking.com HQ, wasl Tower, JetBrains’ Office Campus, Hardt Hyperloop and the Brainport Smart District in Helmond.

As we have simultaneously extended our network to include consultants, partners, and advisors across the globe, we are in a position to work efficiently and effectively anywhere in the world.

Here is an overview of our projects.

UNSx

We explore how to create environments, products and services that enhance and support the human experience.

As UNStudio’s in-house innovation think tank and experience lab that is grounded in architectural, urban and product design, we research and experiment with new methodologies, technologies, processes and materials to design solutions for the shared human experience. With a team of architects, computational designers, product designers, creative strategists, VR/AR specialists and sustainability consultants, we cover a wide range of disciplines.

Our most recent projects include building adaptive and responsive environments, using data to design for happiness, and developing products and services for connectivity. Taking a user-centric perspective, the experience of the community that will be living in a space, using a product or accessing a service, is at the core of our design practice.

UNSFutures

Scenarios that help us predict how technology, social, political and economic factors will affect the built environment.

From the most intimate spaces of our lives to big business, new forms of culture and technology are reshaping the world. Creating value in this time of change requires new skill sets and the ability to mediate different worlds. Technology and architecture. Business and sustainability. Culture and urbanism. Policy and design. UNSFutures is a new type of agency within UNStudio, built on the conviction that relevance defines our interactions with places, brands and each other.

For an idea, space, building or masterplan to take root, it must stem from a deep understanding of culture – of how people act, interact and communicate. With an eye on architecture, technology and communication, UNSFutures understands how these worlds inter-relate. UNSFutures turns this knowledge into tangible designs that move projects forward from concept development through to design implementation. To do this, the UNSFutures unit works closely with cross-disciplinary teams of academics, technologists and design leaders, as well as with the designers at UNStudio.

Improvement and Quality

Internationally approved practices