Graft Architekten – Real estate with passion

The architectural firm Graft from Berlin was founded by three German architects, and is now a renowned and both nationally and internationally successful company. We have conducted an extensive interview with the founders, which we have divided into 3 thematic sections, for each of which an article was created. In the first part the founders talk about passion and drive of the company. The second part of the interview deals mainly with residential and mixed use projects. The third part deals with Graft’s future projects. Click here to get to the respective parts of the interview:

1. Architect’s office
2. Residential & Mixed Use
3. Future: E-car charging station & Co.

Joint architectural studies, foundation and company statement

FIV: Dear Graft team, let’s start the interview with you as an architecture firm. When it comes to founding great companies and ideas, everything often starts off the beaten track. The founders of Uber, one of the most innovative companies in the USA and now also in Germany, met by chance in Paris. The architecture firm Graft, now also based in Shanghai (China), has its roots in Los Angeles. What was the idea, situation or objective that gave rise to the Graft architecture firm? How did you come together in LA?

Graft: It’s customary for us architects to meet at the university. That’s how it was with us, too. We all studied architecture in the same semester at the TU Braunschweig and got to know each other there. Believe it or not, we also played classical music and sang acapella together back then.

In this way we got to know each other well and quickly realized that we harmonize both vocally and humanly. With us, the whole thing was even quite professional, we toured and also released a few CDs together. An intense friendship developed out of it and looking back it seems almost fatefully clear that something lifelong would develop out of it.

Why did we found the office in LA? As young architecture graduates, we decided to go to the US at the end of the 90s, because that was the place of departure and the beginning of digitalization within our profession. In this respect, Germany was simply still a developing country.

Building in Germany or America – authorities make the difference!

FIV: A quick question for our readers who might want to build in America. German building law is, like many things here, particularly bureaucratic. So for you as an architect, free, creative planning is certainly more difficult in Germany (e.g. Berlin) than in Los Angeles (USA), for example? Does the country make a difference?

Graft: Yes, you could say that. Interestingly, building law in America is just as complex and quite strict. It is the mentality of the people in which our experiences with the responsible offices differ.

In the USA, the American idea of service also prevails in the authorities, and work is done with a higher degree of innovation and dynamism. In Germany, people stick to existing rules and are very reluctant to break new ground. In the USA, there is a much greater motivation on the part of the authorities and the other parties involved to solve the concerns of the counterpart together.

One of the flagship projects is the Charlie Living Quartier in Berlin. Get an impression of the building complex here, which has become a flagship of the company in Germany.

Architects as experts: Innovation is the key

FIV: For our readers who are discovering Graft for the first time today, how would you as the owner, founder and idea generator describe your architectural practice in a few words, what makes Graft, as a company, a brand?

Graft: We are innovators. We want avant-garde, although we are romantics at the same time. We love the origins and long history of architecture as much as the unknown future. Lars Krückeberg, for example, is a great Renaissance connoisseur, and has just returned from a one-year stay as a scholarship holder at the Villa Massimo in Rome. You could say we are seekers with strong roots. It was this search that led us to the New World back then – to the academic world of America, which was more interesting at the time. Into the spirit of optimism of a start-up culture in California. We would say we were curious, pushy people who wanted to rattle the bars of the cage called “this is how it’s always been done”.

“We are seekers with strong roots”.

That is one thing. And at the same time, we are also typically German: people with a sense of social justice. We don’t only work on high-end projects, but also initiate social projects for which we partly work for free. We are always looking for problems to solve and our time offers many urgent tasks.

These can be about beauty, about wanting to experience something you’ve never experienced before. But it can also be that one builds a house for people who otherwise cannot afford a house. The goal here is to not just repeat yourself if possible. To be a problem solver as well as a designer, that’s what we’re all about.

Print in business: always new, always different? Fashion & Architecture

Graft: The same applies to the topic of fashion, which I’m sure your readers are interested in. Only there it is much freer and at the same time subject to faster changes. For fashion designers, it’s both a curse and a blessing that they have to constantly reinvent themselves.

People don’t want to wear the same thing every day. Only when it comes to an investment and not a consumer good, the behavior is much more sedate and cautious. For many people, buying a home is a once-in-a-lifetime investment. That’s why there’s naturally more concern about maintaining value, and the question arises, “What will it all look like in 50 years?” Our claim is to design something new and a classic at the same time.

The constant search for new things is the drive

Here, too, there are pioneers on the side of the clients, whom we call “early adopters”. People who have a certain understanding of culture and art, who strive for something new in architecture. And not only does a modern car or interesting contemporary art go with modern fashion, but also contemporary architecture.

Awards and planning of new properties

FIV: Ideas from Graft is a collaboration of 3 strong founders and their partners. They are all excellent architects! Founded in 1998, they have over 20 years of expertise, experience and references. They have won many international awards. New spectacular ideas are being implemented, charging station for E.ON, the air taxi Volo-Port.

The Charlie Living Quartier in Berlin is also from your company, with which you have just been nominated for the “Archdaily 2021: Best Building Award”. Congratulations! After all these years, is it still exciting for you to tackle a new project, to plan a new building, or has all this become routine for you?

Graft: It’s always exciting. The expertise we have gained means that we can recycle our knowledge well. But that doesn’t just mean formally, creatively or inventively, but also in the tools of the trade. We now know all the tricks of the trade when it comes to building.

Every now and then we literally stand in front of a blank sheet of paper. We recently built an ice stadium for the first time and learned a lot of new things in the process.

The ice stadium in question, the “Schierker-Feuerstein-Arena”, is located in Wernigerode (Germany) and was completed in 2017. The task here was the reactivation of a historic ice stadium with a new roof construction. Here you can see the result of the Graft project.

Experience & inspiration lead architects to success

Graft: When the next assignment for a residential building or a villa comes up, we already have so many ideas and dreams from the past that you haven’t been able to implement yet, and with which the internal library in your head is filled. You look into sketchbooks and look up past designs, this fertilizes the project in a more complex way. At the same time, each project is unique and requires something new. The three of us find the actual moment of the idea the most exciting. A design often needs many ideas, variations to mature and develop.

As an architect, you should be ready to contribute to the building culture of our society and the problems it solves. The profession should be approached with verve and a desire for the unknown.

Development process: From the idea to the finished design property

Graft: We like to brainstorm and sketch together and inspire each other with ideas. That flow in creativity where a vague idea becomes a concrete design. That’s what we live for, probably like any creative person.

That’s why every new order is a chance to relive the moment of brainstorming before you have to make a final commitment to plan and build the project. We like to invest a lot of time to enjoy this process.

“Passion makes a good first a very good idea.”

We are especially grateful that we feel our profession as a vocation and may live as such. Just like with good music or good fashion, you can tell if someone brings passion to the table and if there is passion in a result. Without passion, that last mile that can take an idea from good to very good can’t happen.

Projects with pride: villa for Brad Pitt, dental practice and more

FIV: I’d like to talk about a few of your projects now, but first of all, looking back over 20 years of experience as architects, which of your projects, around the world, are you most proud of?

Graft: We always remember our first steps, even if they were only small projects. The first villa for Brad Pitt, for example, or the dental practice on the Kudamm, which we have continued to build for 20 years.

Social commitment in New Orleans: Reconstruction & Co.

Graft: We are particularly proud of the first major social commitment, in which we volunteered for 10 years to help rebuild New Orleans after the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. We invited many colleagues to participate in the project. We also created a sustainable curation for the process of rebuilding the city.

Another highlight is certainly that we were curators for the German Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. For architects, this is a great accolade. In the exhibition, we looked back at what has been created architecturally and culturally along the former Wall strip in the 30 years since reunification. For me (Wolfram Putz), the greatest projects are those that are just getting started. To put it simply: I find tomorrow much, much more beautiful than yesterday.

“Tomorrow is much, much more beautiful than yesterday.” (W. Putz, founder)

I (W.Putz) have the habit of rarely returning to the projects we have built after a while. A life in motion or in the moment of invention, that is basically the most beautiful thing.

Here you can see one of Graft’s flagship projects: The Bricks in Berlin Schöneberg, right on the main street. As an old post office site, this project was particularly challenging, and the result has been both commercial and private residential space. You can read more about this exciting project in the related article: Bricks Berlin.

Architects as stage designers!? About the building process

FIV: A nice coincidence, you basically anticipated my next question. That would have been whether you dedicate yourself directly to the next project after completing one, or whether you also take the opportunity from time to time to return to the places or projects you created?

Graft: You visit a completed project now and then, but it’s not an explicit need. There are architects who have built a really great masterpiece. For example, the architect of the “Sydney Opera Hall” – he only built two things in his life, a small house in Mallorca and the famous Sydney Opera House. Of course, he has always returned to that house his whole life. It has also become a fantastic masterpiece, but after the keys are handed over, after the press appointment, a certain development sets in: The projects then “grow up” as if by themselves.

“A project is never yours for long”

Graft: Architects basically create a stage on which the users perform their own play. The feeling that a project belongs to you fades over time, even though you’ve worked on it for so many days. It then belongs to someone else. Sometimes it belongs to the private user, sometimes to the public, who, if it goes off “Berlin-style”, think up a nickname for it, and again make something entirely their own, a new identity out of it.

Collaboration with architects: Getting to know each other & developing an idea

FIV: Who wants to realize his ideas with a partner like you: how can we, as “home owners” imagine the concept phase, the planning, the construction of such spectacular real estate? What is important when planning a building with “design elements”?

Graft: In contrast to other well-known architects who often want to impose their own signature, we prefer a “learning journey”, the joint journey to the result. We are not so fascinated by the classic architecture competition mechanics, we prefer to get to know our clients personally. For example, we go out to dinner with them, watch football with them, dream, discuss or cook together. Getting to know each other very intensively is important to us.

“Getting to know people and putting them at the heart of invention is what we like best of all.”

This happens well before you develop a design approach, otherwise you run the risk of falling back too quickly on a drawer in your head. It’s a process, “design thinking, user-centered”: getting to know people and putting them at the center of the invention. That’s what we like best of all. It doesn’t always work, and it doesn’t always involve a single person. This process of being completely close to people, of being immersive, is what would describe us best of all. For this, it is essential that our counterpart brings the same desire for the project.

Example: Wave residential building in Berlin on the Spree

One of the architecture firm’s projects that has been completed in the meantime is, for example, the “Wave” project on the banks of the Spree in Berlin. Here, two residential buildings were created that lend the riverbank a special charm. The qualities of this special waterfront location in particular served as the conceptual model for the new building.

Here is another view into one of the many apartments of the residential building with a picturesque view of the Spree and the opposite bank.

Virtual Reality as an important medium – also for real estate

FIV: One area that is becoming increasingly interesting is VR, or virtual reality. Worldwide, for example, there is now the first real estate portal that lets new properties be presented by a virtual real estate agent, more precisely a virtual avatar named Ella . That is, she presents new properties, always looks the same, speaks countless languages, because it’s all digital.These are all first attempts, but how do you assess the future of VR technologies for presenting projects?

Graft: We find the technologies of virtual reality very fascinating. That was also one of the reasons why we went to America at the time: to further study the possibilities of the future there. There were more technological innovations in America that appealed to us. Whether it’s a software or just this hardware of VR glasses – which we actually also use in our presentations – everything is full of exciting possibilities.

Invention phase: Giving clients an idea

Graft: Architects have always learned certain techniques. One of the most time-consuming things in the invention phase is to visualize one’s own idea in the mind of the other person. In the past, the great architects used to do this, for example, by painting huge canvases that took weeks or even months to complete. Today, we have completely different technologies at our disposal to show the still embryonic architectural ideas to other people – up to the almost physical experience through VR glasses.

We were thrilled by the first demos of VR technology – it was clear that it could carry us forward. It makes architecture better, increases customer satisfaction, eliminates misunderstandings between architect and client. In addition, like any work, it suddenly gives feedback on how architecture is created. As architects, we can now use VR to better describe ideas in advance, before we cast something in concrete. It helps to control processes, to improve them, to make them more beautiful. That’s just fantastic!

Residential buildings and future projects – Interview part 2 & 3

You haven’t heard enough about the successful architects and their work? No problem, there are more interview parts waiting for you! Besides their basic work, we also asked Graft about future projects, as well as residential buildings and flagship properties. In the following posts you can dive deeper into the world of modern and innovative architecture.

Residential buildings, offices and popular projects of architects (2/3)

The second part of the interview is about flagship projects and residential and mixed-use properties. Whether it’s a dental practice, a revitalization project with a historic preservation factor, or a modern villa for private owners: the portfolio of the architecture firm is versatile and unique. No two projects are the same, and there is always something new to discover! Take a closer look at the projects here and let the founders explain more about the development processes, ideas and concepts.

• Residential real estate and flagship projects

© Tobias Hein

Future – modern architecture for air taxis & e-cars (3/3)

Electric cars, filling stations for electricity and air taxis – dreams of the future? Not at all! The modern company wants to act as a pioneer, create opportunities and solve problems! With its future projects, Graft, as a pioneer of the transport revolution, is embarking on a search for innovative solutions to modern problems together with strong partners such as e.on. Find out everything about the exciting architectural projects of tomorrow here!

• Future projects – air taxi and e-car charging stations

© Bloom Images

Future projects: Air taxis and electric filling stations

As an architecture firm, Graft stands above all for innovation and is constantly on the lookout for new things. So it’s no wonder that Graft never stands still and is constantly working on new projects. Currently, the planning and design of ports for air taxis – so-called VoloPorts – and the development of a concept for numerous electric charging stations for the energy company e.on are particularly current and exciting. The founders talked to us about future projects and related topics. Would you like to learn more about Graft? Then take a look at the other parts of the extensive interview with various thematic focuses. You can find the links here:

1. Architect’s office
2. Residential & Mixed Use
3. Future: E-car charging station & Co.

Mobility turnaround? Ultra-fast charging stations

Innovation is an apt buzzword for Graft. Real estate is more than “just” places to live. You are currently involved in two extremely interesting projects. One topic that is on the minds of many is e-mobility and, in particular, the expansion of the charging network in Germany. Things get even more interesting with the first port for the Volocopter (air taxi).

FIV: First of all, I would be interested: A project like E.ON’s ultra-fast charging stations, but also the Volocopter Port, offer a lot of room for innovation. The road to get there is long, you first had to win a competition against strong competitors. But you were able to win the competition for modular VoloPorts! So you invested a lot of time and energy without knowing if you would win: That shows passion. What is the attraction of such innovative projects for you?

Graft: We live in a great time. But also in a time full of problems, great difficulties and strong challenges. It may be a time that shocks some and challenges too much. But the shaper is pleased when there is so much to solve – and we have much to solve. We have a rising generation that has created a voice for itself with actions like Fridays For Future, demanding that we preserve this planet for future generations.

“Architecture is key to decarbonizing our future.”

Architecture / construction is a very big contributor to global warming and therefore also a big key to decarbonising our future. This also includes the transport revolution and the way we will live and move in our cities.

© Plomp

Design & idea behind the e-charging stations for E.ON

Graft: You have to go so far out on a limb because you ask yourself: Why do our stations, which we contribute as a small building block of the traffic turnaround as architecture, look like this? You have to rethink a lot. In fashion, too, there is currently a big movement in the area of sustainability, materials, the health of materials, but also in fair trade and logistics chain issues, price, price ideas, and so on.

In this respect, we are not only thoughtlessly moving art forward with ever newer creativity, but of course we also have a social responsibility. The transport revolution is incredibly complex. One of our projects, for example, is about the future of personal transport, which is tied to the roads. On the other hand, it’s also about how artificial intelligence can make itself affordable for individuals in terms of movement – through the air, among other things – and with the same autonomy without a pilot.

“Why did we prevail? Because we enjoy solving problems.”

In both projects, we work for companies that are basically the visionaries in their field in the transport revolution. We didn’t force them to do it, they approached us with it and sought out Graft as a partner. Why we prevailed over competitors in the competition? Why we did the worldwide rollout of the entire corporate architecture at Mercedes? Why we are currently working with several Nobel Prize winners on projects for a new start-up for magnetic levitation trains in Asia, but also in Germany?

Architecture competition: belief in solving problems with projects

Graft: Because solving our global problems is about believing that we can solve them. That we have the technical possibilities to also make forward breakthroughs and improvements, and not just save our planet by saving our needs. That in some areas we can also use technology to move in a more ecological and economical way.

© Bloom Images

Curiosity, optimism & innovation: qualities of good architects

Graft: We would say that our desire, curiosity, optimism and also our hope to incorporate as well as technological innovative spirit into architecture, and at the same time to let our language of form speak, has convinced these companies that we are good partners. Because our architectures are technologically innovative. But surely they also have something cheerful, sensitive and bionic somewhere.

“The gas stations basically work like petals.”

The E.ON service stations function metaphorically and visually like large petals and, in addition to technological innovation, this also makes them seem emotional, almost romantic. This makes something resonate semantically in the subconscious. It is the complete opposite to a rigid, cold gas station body with a roof supported on large pillars. It is precisely this lightness and this filigree that have contributed to these feelings of closeness and naturalness in our designs.

Ecological materials and alternative energy production

Graft: Things like ecological materials and the pattern of energy production could be made visible precisely through this. The formal language sets the accent that says and shows that something new can be believed in there. That this architecture appeals to customers and should not only make the technical experts happy.

It’s also about people coming into these gas stations or departure lounges saying, “Wow! This is where a new adventure begins for me. This is so perfectly engineered and innovatively executed that I dare to get on the Volocopter.” To be part of a new community, a new community that transports this desire for discovery.

© GRAFT Brandlab/Skyports/Volocopter/GRAFT , VoloPort Design

Builders who do not want to make any compromises

FIV: With both projects, you as an office are no longer “only” building locally, E.ON charging stations are being built everywhere, the Volocopter stations are also planned worldwide, as described in ports, but also on the roofs of skyscrapers. To what extent are these projects a new level, also for your architectural practice?

Graft: For us it’s not new to think like this, we already did it as students. What is totally new are clients who no longer want to compromise.

Unfortunately, you have to realize that even if we do something at a top notch / cutting edge level now, it probably won’t be the best thing to do in ten years. That’s part of it. It applies to the transportation revolution just as much. Cars and artificial intelligence for autonomous driving or flying are constantly being optimized. Maybe in 10 – 15 years we’ll look back at the first generation Volocopter and say, “Man, it looks like an old TV,” but that’s okay!

Farmhouse meets Tesla – tradition and modernity coexist

Graft: Even today, there are old architectures that still look as they did when they were built. There are enough clients who say: “I love my old farmhouse, I want to restore it true to the original”.

“Modernity, the present, and yesterday can coexist.”

The two can coexist. You can still get into the Tesla next to your farmhouse and be driven to work. Modernity, the present and yesterday united. The romance of memory and the dreaming of the future don’t have to contradict each other at all. But of course, a Volocopter doesn’t look like a flying carriage.

© GRAFT Brandlab/Skyports/Volocopter/GRAFT , VoloPort Design

Advice to architects-to-be: Dream concepts and implement them!

FIV: We at FIV thank you very much for the insights into your work, your projects and also a little bit into the future. Finally, I would like to ask a question for all those who, just like you, want to realise great projects one day: Architects of the Future. Is there anything you would advise the next generation of architects who want to enter this profession? In your opinion, are there areas in which it is worth specialising? Or perhaps fundamental qualities/approaches that are valuable?

Graft: Everyone has to find out for themselves whether they can make a living from their profession without completely losing the pushing and yearning that you know from your student days. Our art, like fashion: everything thrives on those who want more. By that we don’t mean money, we just mean that the journey isn’t over yet. Keep it up and find a job where you can do both well. You can want to live a bourgeois life, have material desires, but everyone can also contribute to solving the challenges that are yet to come.

Starting out on your career? Success comes step by step…

Graft: Architecture is a brilliant profession for it, because the professional field is diverse. The important thing is: when you study and start working, the mountain seems too big, but it’s actually small steps. You don’t have to succeed in everything at once. The main thing is not only to dream and design, but also to take care that the dreams come true and the designs come into the world. That’s what you don’t learn at university.

“At first the mountain seems so big, but it’s actually small steps.”

We talked at the beginning about the moment being the beautiful thing, and that years of building follow. You have to be able to have staying power for that, just as for the moment of ecstasy. The beginning of a love is beautiful, it can still be great after 20 years of marriage, although it has changed a lot in the process and completely different qualities have been added. For a newcomer to the profession, this Sturm und Drang phase is incredibly great, and you should keep some of it until the end.

FIV: That is a beautiful closing word! Thank you very much.

Architects and Real Estate Projects – Interview Part 1 & 2

The future projects have really aroused your curiosity about the Graft architecture office? Would you like to learn more about the working methods and completed projects of the architects? No problem! Our in-depth interview has been divided into 3 thematic blocks, and thus offers you a lot of information and visual material. Let the founders explain to you how they work at Graft and what is important in different architectural projects!

Architects and successful work (1/3)

You find the projects presented so far interesting and would like to learn more about the architectural office? No problem! In addition to residential / mixed use projects, we also talked to the founders about the origins and philosophy of their company, as well as future projects. In Part 1 of the interview, you can find out even more about the founders and how they came together as a group of entrepreneurs. You’ll also find out what makes Graft’s properties so unique, and the architects’ attitude towards their work. Read more here!

• Architects and their work – Graft

© Pablo Castagnola

Residential buildings, offices and popular projects of architects (2/3)

The second part of the interview is about flagship projects and residential and mixed-use properties. Whether it’s a dental practice, a revitalization project with a historic preservation factor, or a modern villa for private owners: the portfolio of the architecture firm is versatile and unique. No two projects are the same, and there is always something new to discover! Take a closer look at the projects here and let the founders explain more about the development processes, ideas and concepts.

• Residential real estate and flagship projects

© Tobias Hein