Graft1 - Los Angeles
GRAFT is a studio for architecture, urban planning, design, music, and the pursuit of happiness. In pursuit of architectural excellence, we explore the freedom of experimentation and seek out creative challenges. In this way, we create architecture that transcends functional requirements, encourages dialogue about the future, and expresses our desire for a multifaceted representation of human culture and attitudes.
We see the future as a space of possibilities that we shape through innovative and forward-looking design approaches in close dialogue with our clients. We dream confidently, we design persistently, and we reliably deliver.
DREAM - DESIGN - DELIVER
Graft offices Los Angeles, Beijing, Berlin
Graf office Los Angeles 1998
Graf office Beijing 2004
Graf office Berlin 2019
GRAFT was founded in Los Angeles in 1998 by Lars Krückeberg, Wolfram Putz, and Thomas Willemeit. Additional offices followed in Berlin in 2001, Beijing in 2004, and Shanghai in 2019. Today, GRAFTLAB is the main location in the heart of Berlin. In 2018, Sven Fuchs and Georg Schmidthals joined the team of partners. GRAFT has won numerous international awards and currently employs around 75 people from over 15 countries.
GRAFT's collective work encompasses a wide range of building types, including residential, cultural, educational, institutional, commercial, master plan, and healthcare projects around the world. In addition to the company's core activity in the field of architectural design and the built environment, GRAFT has always placed particular emphasis on design methodology in order to test forward-looking techniques and expand the boundaries of artistic and academic dialogue.
Graftlab office Berlin 2023
How we work
Partnerships
Founding Partners
LARS KRÜCKEBERG
Founding Partner of GRAFT
Architekt BDA
Lars Krückeberg studied architecture at the Technical University Braunschweig, Germany, where he graduated with a Dipl.-Ing. Arch. He received his Master of Architecture at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Los Angeles, USA. In 1998 Lars Krückeberg established GRAFT in Los Angeles together with Wolfram Putz, and Thomas Willemeit. GRAFT has won numerous national and international awards and garnered international fame with a widespread following throughout its existence. GRAFT today employs 100 architects and designers worldwide.
WOLFRAM PUTZ
Founding Partner of GRAFT
Architekt BDA
Wolfram Putz studied architecture at the Technical University Braunschweig, Germany, where he graduated with a Dipl.-Ing. Arch. He received his Master of Architecture at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Los Angeles, USA. In 1998 Wolfram Putz established GRAFT in Los Angeles together with Thomas Willemeit, and Lars Krückeberg. GRAFT has won numerous national and international awards and garnered international fame with a wide-spread following throughout its existence. GRAFT today employs 100 architects and designers worldwide.
THOMAS WILLEMEIT
Founding Partner of GRAFT
Architekt BDA
Thomas Willemeit studied architecture at the Technical University Braunschweig where he graduated with a Dipl.-Ing. Arch. Besides his successful career in the architectural field, he won numerous national prizes as a violin player and a chorister. In 1998 Thomas Willemeit established GRAFT in Los Angeles together with Wolfram Putz, and Lars Krückeberg. GRAFT has won numerous national and international awards and garnered international fame with a widespread following throughout its existence. GRAFT today employs 100 architects and designers worldwide.
Partners
SVEN FUCHS
GRAFT Partner
Architekt
Sven Fuchs studied architecture at the Technical University of Braunschweig and graduated in 2004 with a Dipl.-Ing. At that time, he was already working as an artist and achieved early recognition with a first prize in the international architecture competition for the Spielbudenplatz in Hamburg, in collaboration with Planungsring Mumm + Partner. Sven Fuchs has been with GRAFT since 2006. He became a partner at GRAFT in 2018 and, in addition to business development, is also responsible for human resources in our company.
GEORG SCHMIDTHALS
GRAFT Partner
Architekt
Georg Schmidthals studied architecture at the Technical University of Graz and the Technical University of Cottbus, where he graduated in 2005 with a Dipl.-Ing. Arch. He worked as a design tutor for master and bachelor students at the Institute for Architecture and Culture at the Artesis Hogeschool in Antwerp. As an architect, Georg Schmidthals held leading positions at Jürgen Mayer H. in Berlin and Stuttgart, and LENS°ASS in Brussels. In 2013 he founded his own architectural office AND’ROL in Namur, Belgium. Georg Schmidthals has been with GRAFT in Berlin since 2015 and became a partner in 2018. He is responsible for numerous ongoing projects, new project commissions and competition participation.
Recognition
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.
GRAFT has won numerous international awards. Our projects have been displayed in exhibitions around the globe.
Publications
TASTE IS THE LACK OF APPETITE. Hybrid approaches to architecture, Ausstellungskatalog, 2023, AEDES, Berlin
IDENTITY. New Commercial, Cultural and Mobility Architecture, 2020, Birkhäuser De Gruyter, Berlin
Unbuilding Walls. From Deathstrip to Free Space - Exhibition catalog, 2018, Birkhäuser De Gruyter, Berlin
FUTOPOLIS – Urbanisierungsstudie, 2018, Zukunftsinstitut GmbH, Frankfurt
GRAFT Home. Story., 2017, Birkhäuser De Gruyter, Berlin
Architecture Activism, 2016, Birkhäuser De Gruyter, Berlin
Immobilien Report 2016 – Communicating Architecture, 2015, Zukunftsinstitut GmbH, Frankfurt
Immobilien Report 2015 – Living Spaces, 2014, Zukunftsinstitut GmbH, Frankfurt
Distinct Ambiguity, 2011, Gestalten, Berlin
Architecture in Times of Need, 2009, Prestel, München
Graftworld, 2007, Aedes, Berlin
Year
Lectures
Ukraine Expert Conference, Panel, Berlin, Germany
RICS Forum, Panel, Berlin, Germany
Future Brick Days by Wienerberger, About Digital Craftsmanship and New Cityscapes, Keynote, Architekturzentrum Vienna, Austria
Urban Health Summit, Project presentation ICU Charité, Hannover, Germany
AMM Symposium, Dreaming with machines: Architectural storytelling and AI,
Bochum, Germany
Architektenkammer Hamburg / Hamburger Kreativgesellschaft, AI in Architecture, Hamburg, Germany
Brillux Design Award 2023, Jury member, Münster, Germany
Award Conference for the Best Finnish Concrete Building Betonipäivä 2025, Energy is the global currency, Helsinki, Finland
Awards
BIG SEE Architecture Award 2025, Winner Residential Housing, GRAFTLAB
MIPIM Awards 2025, Finalist Best New Development, DOXS NKLN
Exhibitions
Designs for Johanna and Eduard Arnhold Square, Kulturforum Berlin
Our design process is evidence-based and puts people at the center. We base our approach on an understanding of scenography and movement in space, a precise analysis of private and interpersonal rituals, and a belief that architecture is a space of possibility for increasingly diverse needs.
The result is dynamic, flexible architecture for different lifestyles that allows for ambiguous interpretations while expressing a precise attitude.
Grafting Identities
Architecture is a cultural technique. It is neither self-contained nor finite; but rather part of a complex cultural context. Architecture is always a reflection of the attitudes of all those involved and is never an autonomous discipline. The significance of multifaceted identity in designed spaces, from the individual to the community, from the city to the region, is central to GRAFT.
At a time when the lines between the real and the virtual, the urban and the rural, the local and the global are becoming increasingly blurred, our built environment reflects the negotiation of diverse expectations regarding spaces of complex meaning.
GRAFT responds to the challenges of the future with an optimistic attitude toward multiple and simultaneous identities that enable a higher degree of complexity. Today's world shows us that, instead of one truth, the peaceful negotiation of values based on mutual interest is not only the only way forward for humanity, but also the only chance for globally sustainable artistic practice.
In addition to its architectural work, GRAFT also acts as an initiator and catalyst for socially relevant initiatives. To this end, GRAFT collaborates with leading companies to find solutions to issues that often extend beyond traditional planning tasks.
In 2007, together with Brad Pitt, Bill McDonough, and the Cherokee Foundation, GRAFT established the Make It Right Foundation to rebuild New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward after Hurricane Katrina.
GRAFT’s self-initiated projects also include SOLARKIOSK, a company founded with the German lawyer and entrepreneur Andreas Spieß in 2009 to bring clean energy, connectivity, and solar products to rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2012, GRAFT–in collaboration with Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Art+Com agency–launched the research project "Parametric Dreamdesign", investigating perception of space. After over 10 years of testing, the project has demonstrated the positive impact of architecture on healing processes.
In 2013, GRAFT teamed up with German development bank KfW to start a research project on low-cost and affordable construction in Namibia.
In 2024, Jana M. Mrowetz and GRAFT founded URBAN CELL, a modular concept for the planning, construction and operation of sustainable residential neighborhoods with a vibrant community.
