A small practice, deliberately.

MONOLITH is fourteen people. We take on four or five projects a year, at most, because that is the number we can draw properly ourselves. Every building on this site was detailed by the person who designed it.

Studio

Founded 2011 — Merano / Copenhagen

A small practice, deliberately.

Philosophy

Timeless design

We design against fashion. A building that follows a trend is dated the moment the trend passes, so we work from proportion, material and daylight instead — the three things that have never gone out of date.

Material honesty

We specify few materials and use them as they are. Structure is left visible, surfaces are left as they came out of the formwork or the mill. Nothing is applied purely for effect, and nothing pretends to be something else.

Proportion

Scale is decided before finish. A room of the right size and the right height needs very little done to it, and stays right when taste moves on. We spend a long time on this and very little on decoration.

Light

Openings are designed last, once plan and palette are settled. Light is placed where it is needed and nowhere else, so that a room reads clearly at every hour and in every season.

Architecture that ages well

We build for fifty years, not five. Materials are chosen for how they weather rather than how they photograph when new — concrete that stains evenly, oak that darkens, brass that dulls.