GRAFT

GRAFT was established in 1998 in Los Angeles, California, by Lars Krückeberg, Wolfram Putz and Thomas Willemeit, joined by Sven Fuchs and Georg Schmidthals as partners in 2018. The "hybrid office" has further locations in Munich, Shanghai and Seoul.

GRAFT is conceived as a studio for architecture, urban planning, design, music and the pursuit of happiness. Since its establishment, it has been commissioned to design and manage a wide range of projects across multiple disciplines and in numerous locations. Although the company’s core enterprises gravitate around the field of architecture and the built environment, GRAFT has always maintained an interest in crossing the boundaries between disciplines and “grafting” the creative potential and methodologies of different realities. This is reflected in its expansion into the fields of exhibition and product design, art installations and academic projects, as well as in their variety of project locations around the world. GRAFT’s collective professional experience encompasses a wide range of building types, including residential, cultural, educational, institutional, commercial, master plan and healthcare projects. GRAFT has won numerous international awards, and now numbers some 100 members of staff from over 20 nations.

The five partners give lectures worldwide and provide insights into future-relevant topics and GRAFT's architectural approach. Lars Krückeberg, Wolfram Putz and Thomas Willemeit have held several visiting professorships in the USA, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany and are members of the expert team of the think tank Zukunftsinstitut.

In 2007, together with Brad Pitt, Bill McDonough and the Cherokee Foundation, GRAFT established the Make It Right Foundation, whose objective was the rebuilding of New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward after Hurricane Katrina.
GRAFT’s self-initiated projects also include SOLARKIOSK, a company founded with the German lawyer Andreas Spieß in 2009 to bring clean energy, connectivity and solar products to rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2014, the founding partners expanded the range of activities with the agency GRAFT Brandlab with an additional focus on communication design, brand strategy and consulting. Today, the agency is led by Prof. Nikolaus Hafermaas and Rico Zocher, staying true to GRAFT's original multidisciplinary approach and way of working.