Architecture and model making · Since 2011
From the first line to the last detail.
Atelier Kova designs houses, pavilions and public buildings that belong to the ground they stand on. Scroll to watch one take shape.
01 Line
It starts with the ground.
Contour by contour, then wall by wall. We draw every project by hand until it sits on its site the way the land suggests.
02 Model
Then it becomes a model.
Each design is built in white card in our workshop. Solid, it shows mass, light and shadow in a way a drawing never can.
03 Light
We follow the sun across it.
A lamp set to the site's sun path shows where the light falls from morning to evening, and how far the cantilever's shadow reaches down the slope.
SUN 09:00 · 21 June · 46° N
04 Section
Cut through, it explains itself.
A section shows what a photograph cannot: how the floors step with the hill, where the stair climbs and how the cantilever is held.
- +6.60Roof
- +3.60Bedrooms
- ±0.00Living
05 Plan
Orchard Pavilion
Every building is also a plan. Cut at a metre above the floor, the house gives way to a timber roof on eighteen columns, wrapped in larch slats.
06 Next
Terrace Museum
Four galleries step down a riverbank. Their roofs form a public stair, and north-facing skylights light the rooms below.
All ten projects ↓(02) Index
Ten projects, one way of working.
Houses, pavilions, cultural buildings and one workshop, from 2019 to 2027. Point at a project to see its model and open it for the spec sheet.
- 01Ridge HouseHouse · Alpine foothillsHouseAlpine foothills2025Completed
- 02Orchard PavilionPavilion · Southern lakesPavilionSouthern lakes2024Completed
- 03Terrace MuseumCultural · River deltaCulturalRiver delta2026On site
- 04Two Court HouseHouse · Coastal northHouseCoastal north2022Completed
- 05Ferry ShelterPavilion · Island archipelagoPavilionIsland archipelago2021Completed
- 06Quarry LibraryCultural · Inland plateauCulturalInland plateau2023Completed
- 07Hillside WorkshopWorkplace · Alpine foothillsWorkplaceAlpine foothills2020Completed
- 08Market RoofPavilion · Lowland cityPavilionLowland city2027Competition
- 09Valley SchoolCultural · Highland valleyCulturalHighland valley2027In design
- 10Vineyard HouseHouse · Southern hillsHouseSouthern hills2026On site
2025 · Completed
(03) Studio
Atelier Kova is twenty-four architects, engineers and model makers in one long room. We take on a few projects each year and draw every one of them by hand before we draw it by machine.
- People in the studio
- 24
- Partners
- 3
- Projects built
- 41
- Countries worked in
- 6
Approach
A
Site first
We survey the ground ourselves and draw its contours before we draw a single wall.
B
By hand, then by machine
Early drawings are pencil on tracing paper. The computer comes in once the idea holds.
C
One model per decision
Every choice that matters is tested in white card, at a scale you can lean over.
Timeline
Fifteen years in seven moments.
- 2011
Founded
Three architects in a rented room above a joinery.
- 2013
First house
A small timber house on a working farm.
- 2016
Model workshop
Every project since has been built in white card.
- 2019
First public building
A library for a town on the inland plateau.
- 2021
The print works
The studio moves into one forty-metre room.
- 2024
Twenty-four people
Architects, engineers and two model makers.
- 2026
On site
Terrace Museum starts on the river delta.
(04) Enquire
Tell us about your site.
We start six to eight new projects a year. Tell us where, what and when, and one of the three partners will reply within a week.
- Reply
- Within five working days
- First meeting
- On site, with a partner
- Feasibility
- A site study and two models