Two founders who still argue about whether a building should impress you in five seconds, or reward you for five years.
Alto & Wren started in 2012 as that exact argument between two architecture school friends — and neither of us fully won.
The studio still runs on the tension between Marina’s restraint and Juliana’s instinct for one deliberate moment of drama in every plan. What we agreed on immediately: most firms design for the render, not the person who has to live in it.
We built the studio around simulation-first workflows, budgets checked against real contractor quotes before a client falls for a concept, and a hard cap of six live projects at once. Fourteen years later, that cap hasn’t moved — growth was never the point.
What that means in practice: no project manager stands between you and the person actually drawing your building. Marina or Juliana signs every set of drawings that leaves this studio, and one of them sits in every site visit, from groundbreaking to the day the scaffolding comes down.
git log –studio
init: studio founded
Two architects, zero completed buildings, one client willing to bet on it anyway.
feat: first cultural commission
A small library in Nørrebro — taught us to design for people who didn’t choose to be there.
milestone: first design award
Danish Architecture Award, residential, for a house built from reclaimed timber.
status: 60+ builds, six awards
Still capped at six live projects. Growth was never the point.
Want to work with a studio like this?
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