Cabins are customized by the client, produced in completion and delivered as a single unit to a prepared and permitted site, with permissions and installation services all handled in-house. Whether the cabin arrives on an urban rooftop or a pastural greenfield site, the streamlined installation process remains the same.

Each cabin consists of 25 square meters of flexible interior space, with functional zones intelligently and subtly designated by changes in floor level instead of partition walls. Designed with end user benefit as well as construction in mind, the Cabin One product is a high-quality and multi-functional environment for a variety of customers.

Learn how architect-founder Andreas Rauch balances architectural and entrepreneurial thinking about how we might live in the future, and the importance of embracing technology now.

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What is Cabin One?

Cabin One is a new way of minimal living, defined by our name and by our brand. We continue to question and explore what this means.

We developed a fully functional minimal house with 25 square meters of living space. It is produced as a full module, meaning it’s delivered from the workshop as a complete cabin by truck to its final destination, where it’s then lifted to its precise location by crane. The process to build the cabin and to get it installed on location in position is very fast.

Where can you place the Cabin and what are the legal requirements for buyers?

The cabin can be put anywhere: if it’s going in a green meadow in the middle of nowhere, on a mountain or on a rooftop, the procedure is the same. For the green meadow and for the rooftop, you need a permission, of course. As soon as you’re talking about living, you always need a permit, and so in addition to providing the cabin, we also provide the service of an architect to get the permissions for the desired location.

Installation is actually the same procedure no matter the site, but the level of technical difficulty varies. To bring a cabin to the green meadow, you just need to dig a hole, make the necessary installations there, and that’s it. For rooftops, you also need to have technical structural understanding and certified documentation about the condition and performance of the rooftop itself, the loadbearing walls and the structure of the house. You also need to guarantee fire escape and fire protection.

This is a bit more involved than on the green meadow, but it is mandatory to have an approved fire strategy that so that the firefighters can rescue from the rooftop, or you find your own way to get down. You always need to have two exit routes, and while it may be hard to get, there’s always a solution.

Is this also included in the services you provide as an architect, to see if a rooftop would potentially work or not?

Absolutely. We are very experienced with rooftops. We have inspected many rooftops here in Berlin and abroad, and we have a good idea of where cabins can be realistically installed and where it’s not possible at all.

Of course, there are some rooftops where there is no chance to get building permission, but there are rooftops where you can get a permission very easily. From one look at a roof area, we have a good idea if it’s possible or not.

Could you tell us a little about the process from designing and concepting the Cabin to the real product? What were the steps you took and what have been the challenges?

Before we started talking to producers, we were developing and designing the interior as we wanted it for 25 square meters. One main challenge was that we wanted to have one room—a living room—with a separate bathroom because of humidity and so on.

We wanted to separate the different zones of this one main room, even though we are not using walls. This was the central design point we were following. We separated the room by introducing elements which cause separation by putting functions on different levels.

We didn’t want to do this using furniture. You need to move to get a function out of the room. We decided all of the furniture within these 25 square meters has to be fixed because moving furniture around in a small space could cause you to lose things required for a function very easily, and we imagined having to change everything back to a previous function in order to find a lost item.

“We know that combining the design approach and the construction approach just made the whole product better.”

That is not something we wanted to do. So, every function is fixed with different separations. You have a wardrobe in the beginning of the entrance. Then you go through a hallway. Then you come to the bed, which is higher than the other room. Then you go through, and you come to the kitchen. Then there’s a different connection between the bed and the kitchen. Just by changing the levels between parts of the living area, you can be in your own separate room underneath the same roof. This is all the idea of Cabin One.

Then we talked to our producer about how we could produce that concept, because the design and reality are not always on the same page. We worked closely to find the solution for how to construct the cabin, and how to combine the construction method with our design.

This was a very, very interesting process because a member of the production side would say, “This could never work. Please find a solution for that” and we would work to resolve it, and send a new approach back, saying “Could this work? We were thinking of putting a frame there” and so on. From these discussions with the producer, we became aligned with this project.

Sometimes we needed to let go of our idea, but in general we know that combining the design approach and the construction approach just made the whole product better. There is always a solution, and we found the best solution each time for both construction and design.

How did you finance the production process?

We were financed by crowdfunding initially, which gave us a lot media attention all over the world. Then, when we were searching for a producer to make the first prototype, our prototype producer was more or less an investor. He was invested in making the cabin work, using the right materials and resolving all of the technical issues. The execution of our concept and design was his investment, and we had an open dialogue about what we wanted and what the user wants.

You partnered with a lot of companies. Are some invested in your company?

Our partners are mostly contributors who were interested in our idea. Most companies coming from the real estate and building construction industries are not as innovative as they would like to be, and when they saw in our idea, a very innovative idea, they saw a marketing opportunity and they wanted to support us. We have been very satisfied with the feedback of these partnering companies.

We’ve partnered with companies like Gira for switches and VELUX for sky windows. We found a great partner for all the water systems including and toilet and bathroom systems. Then we got Tado as a partner for the smart heating concept. We got Senic from Berlin, another startup helping to making the whole house smart. And Bosch, of course. We have a lot of companies helping us out with our idea. With most of the partners we tried to do co-operation for the series, which is starting right now.

The design of Cabin One is live, and you mentioned creating a series. Are you planning to create several versions of the house like in the automotive industry?

Actually, we changed the official product name to Cabin One, and its Edition Two, because Edition One is the prototype, but all following products will remain Cabin One. And, yes, we started to bring the prototype into a series.

The first series is the prototype to bring it in as a real serial product. The next steps might be connected cabins, maybe stacked cabins, maybe portable cabins, maybe a bigger one, or even maybe smaller one, which could work off grid. We want to develop a big portfolio of different cabins in the future.

Did you raise venture capital so far?

Until now we have found interested friends and people who support us with convertible loans, which are helping us to build up our company. At one point the loans convert to shares of the company, like an angel investment in a way. We haven’t had venture capital investment yet, but we are looking for VC to help us scale.

How do you structure the sales process and distribution of the Cabin?

The first projects are running. We sent out the first applications, and new projects are coming in. It has been a long process to build up the sales channel, but now it’s up and running and it’s working very well.

We got a lot of good response because of our website. If you’re on our homepage, which is one of our first sales tools, you are led through all of the steps to get your project started, and then it connects to us. After you have been introduced to us and to the product for your project, there will be several meetings and you will get in touch with the product to see how it feels for you, and you can test it and so on.

The next step is to make a contract for the service we provide as an architect, to get the permission for the location you have. Once permission is granted, we deliver the cabin to an already prepared site.

What is really important to us is that the customer gets the whole package from one person or from one site, and this is that what we can provide, convenience for them and for us.

So how much does the Cabin One cost in the moment?

The base module is ready to live in and it includes a bathroom with the rest of the space empty. With this module you can add your own furniture, your own appliances, and customize the interior design. The base model starts at the price of €75,000, excluding VAT, so, it’s nearly under €90,000, including VAT in Germany.

There are different additional packages. The first package is for beds, then comes the kitchen, then the e-appliances, and so on, so you can choose what you want from all of the different packages. The whole cabin with all of the packages will cost under a €100,000, including the service of getting it delivered, installed on your site, and lifted.

Who are your customers so far?

In the beginning, we predicted that our customers would be private homeowners who dream of having a second home surrounded by nature, but the results have been very different. There are a lot of different buyers and customers, beginning from B2C clients up to B2B for hotel cases, for example.

We have many clients who are young people, young professionals, but there are also older people saying, “I want to minimalize myself because all my kids are gone from the house. The house alone for me is too big. I want to get rid of the house, so the only thing I would need is just a small place to live.” The range in customers is really big.

You are interested in expanding the way we live in the future and creating a new aspect of how we live in cities. Could you tell us how you are developing Cabin One in these aspects?

From a historical perspective, living as we know it now hasn’t really seen change for the last 100 or 120 years. Before industrialization, people lived differently. The idea of the single-family house arrived, and this became a very popular and mainstream goal for living.

Today, I think there are several possibilities and several theories of how you could live, and they’re very strongly connected to the phases in your life. For example, you get out of your parents’ house, then you start to study. As a student you are often living in a collective. Then, probably after university, you might work for a company where you need to be more or less available all around the world, so you are actually strongly connected to the way of living in a hotel. There are so many different variations of how we can live.

I think that we are just triggering one way of living, and this is not the solution for everybody, but we have a solution strongly connected to flexible living. We call it flexible long-term living. Perhaps the only thing you need personally is a backpack with your computer and phone, where you can see where the next cabin is free and waiting for you, and you come in and find in the cabin with the same furniture and the same way of using the space as in the cabin you have been in before.

In this case, it’s wouldn’t be the space anymore which is changing in your life, it’s you changing the place where the space is, and this is an experience, and then we are talking about experience living. This is actually what we want to go into more deeply, where we want to push our research.

Do you track data within your cabin, like a Tesla does for example, so you would learn how the customer uses it?

No, not at the moment, but it could be a very interesting model. For example, we could offer someone to stay in the house for free, in exchange for their data. Or the other way around, we don’t want to have any of your data, but then you would pay a rate for living in the house. So, maybe there are models for this. We’re not the only ones thinking about this idea. Of course, living can be, and it will be, very strongly connected to data in the future.

“Living can be, and it will be, very strongly connected to data in the future.”

Are you planning on going internationally?

Absolutely. We are based in Berlin currently and it’s a goal for us to expand internationally, but we are already international in terms of the European Union as some of our team are working in Portugal and Austria. We have projects running all around Europe so far. And as we get bigger, we need to ask ourselves how we are going to expand and where, but this is absolutely the plan of the company.

How have the last three years of building your product and startup changed your thinking as architects?

Fundamentally, I’d say. The way architects think is typically very focused on how to solve problems in a spatial organization. But to build up a company and to find a product market fit for a product, which is actually a house—this is not the normal way of thinking for an architect.

“I can still think as an architect, but I can also think as an entrepreneur.”

It was very challenging for me to think differently at first, but in the end it was absolutely worth it. My perspective on things changed fundamentally. I can still think as an architect, but I can also think as an entrepreneur. Combining these two skill sets has been very interesting and been very hard work, but it was absolutely worth it.

What are your thoughts on the future of the built environment? How can it improve, and what continues to inspire you?

First of all, you should not deny the technology of the moment and the speed at which it’s developing. It’s important to be interested in several topics, not just architecture and new materials on the market for architects. Built environment professionals should be interested in a lot of things including mobility, data services, and of course, smart homes.

This knowledge of adjacent fields and embrace of technology comes with the architectural role. You should try to have a very good overview of all these things, which begins in architectural education.

To be successful in university and become an architect, it is most important that architectural skills are progressed and refined. Of course, outside of university, it is important that the buildings architects design actually get developed, but the architect is missing the education and the connection to the business and real estate market outside. This aspect of architectural education should be prioritized by universities because it is very important that future architects also know how to sell their design to a customer or to a client, and this, somehow, I missed in my university. —

The post Minimal, Modular & Mobile: Cabin One is a New Way of Flexible Living appeared first on Archipreneur.

Last week we shared with you 5 essentials models you should know in crowdfunding for architects. Today we present you 6 successfully crowdfunded architecture projects:

Crowdfunded Architecture Lowline by James Ramsey and Dan Barasch

One of the most notable ones is Lowline. The project to repurpose the old Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal under Delancey Street in New York City into a public green space was envisioned by Lowline co-founders James Ramsey and Dan Barasch. They discovered the space several years ago and saw its potential as a kind of underground version of the High Line.

After presenting their idea to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which controls the space, they created a Kickstarter campaign to raise $100,000, which would pay for the Lowline Lab, an open laboratory and technical exhibit designed to test and showcase how the Lowline will grow and sustain plants underground. The proposal raised almost $224,000 through its latest campaign, making it “the most funded Public Art project” on the popular crowdfunding platform to date. The Lowline Lab ran from October 2015 through February 2017, the permanent space however is pending.

See the kickstarter campaign here.

Splash House by Parsons Design Workshop

Another crowdfunding success is located north of the proposed Lowline. Graduate architecture students from Parsons The New School for Design recently completed Splash House-pool pavilion, which was also funded through Kickstarter. Despite the support of individuals and corporations, the team needed additional funding to start construction.

Their goal was $15,000, which they exceeded by scoring $16,493 from 232 backers, many of whom lived or worked in the neighborhood.

See the kickstarter campaign here.

The Jennings Hotel

The world’s first crowdfunded hotel and artist residency was realized by Greg Hennes in Oregon. In a recent interview the entrepreneur and founder of The Jennings Hotel spoke about his crowdfunding campaign.

Greg bought the century-old building in Joseph, Oregon, in 2014. The preparation and shooting of the Kickstarter campaign took 6-8 months, but it was a success. The goal of $80,000 was exceeded by raising $107,070 from 870 backers. He could redevelop the building – then a mess of run-down apartments and offices – back to its former beauty as an eight-room hotel and artist residency. You can now book the rooms via Airbnb.

See the kickstarter campaign here.

Cabin Spacey

Another way to use crowdfunding is to get seedfunding for your project. You can compare crowdfunding in this initial stage of a new business to approaching investors including friends, family and neighbors, and asking them to give you money. 

The architect duo of  CABIN SPACEY launched a successful crowdfunding campaign to raise money to build a prototype of their innovation: tiny cabins, that will be located on cities’ existing and yet unused spaces – rooftops, parking decks, gable walls and temporary lots.

In an interview with Archipreneur the architects stressed, that you have to be aware of the work it will take:

Producing this [campaign] material needs care, time and deliberation; one shouldn’t underestimate that. The more time you have to focus on the preparation, the better your campaign will feel and the more fun you will have in promoting your baby.

139 backers raised $30,848 exceeding the goal by 106%.

See the indiegogo campaign here.

Steam Ring Generator by BIG

Even starchitects are starting to embrace crowdfunding. In 2015, Bjarke Ingels launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to realize a prototype of their “steam ring generator”, in Copenhagen – a steam chimney for the world’s “cleanest power plant in the world”. We spoke with Jakob Lange, Partner at BIG and Head of the BIG Ideas project unit, about the the steam ring generator in our interview.

The team exceeded their $15,000 goal, with 399 backers pledging a total of $29,520.

See the kickstarter campaign here.

Maketto

The brothers Daniel and Ben Miller made crowdfunded architecture their business model and told us about it in an interview. They founded the crowdfunding platform Fundrise with the vision to completely democratize real estate investment by removing the middlemen and the outdated regulations that restricted who and how people can invest in real estate.

It was a success, their first project was a unique urban boutique project in Washington D.C. called Maketto – a hybrid, half-retail, half-restaurant. It was the platform’s first offering when it launched in 2012 – back before anyone knew about the possibility of crowdfunding real estate.

It raised $325,000 from 175 individual investors who invested from $100 to $10,000 into the crowdfunded architecture project to support the launch of a new business.

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Do you know more successful crowdfunded architecture projects? Tell us about them in the comments.

The post Build Your Own: 6 Successfully Crowdfunded Architecture Projects appeared first on Archipreneur.

Learn to sell something, anything. You’ll never learn more about what it takes to run a business than when you put yourself out there and make an offering.

– Michael Kilkelly, Founder of ArchSmarter

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Be persistent and don’t give up on your dreams. Find the best team members to build your business with and, most importantly, – don’t be afraid to dare and enjoy what you do.

– Adi Biran & Lihi Gerstner, Founders of Splacer.co

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It’s all about surrounding yourself with the most talented people who can help you realize your vision and stay most true to your ideas.

– Natasha Case, Founder of Coolhaus

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Studying architecture is just the greatest thing there is. The skills learned are actually quite good for management. You learn to form a vision, present this vision or break it down to smaller tasks.

– Kaspar Helfrich, Co-Founder of Archilogic

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I hope that if architects and design minded people are impacting development and urbanism in a greater way, our buildings and our communities will only get better.

– Ari S. Heckman, Founder of ASH NYC

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Architects have a huge contribution to make to the world in the 21st century – particularly in shaping how we can live sustainably and happily within ever-denser cities and within the Earth’s resources.

– Will Hunter, Founder & Director LSA

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Just get started, and don’t be afraid because the people who are successful are willing to fail and so you should be too.

– David Belt, Founder of Macro Sea

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I would like to see architects be less passive in their roles and with their profession. For me that means real estate development. But it could mean any number of other variations on the trade. Architects are holistic thinkers. I am at my best when I use my right brain and my left brain equally. Architecture school hones both of these hemispheres in a way that’s not common in other professions.

– Kevin Cavenaugh, Founder of Guerrilla Development

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Start today…! I suffered from analysis paralysis for a long time, fearing I’d never be able to save enough working capital to make a run at starting a business. I was determined to spend as little as possible to make it work.

– Eric Reinhold, Founder of 30×40 Design Workshop

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In the architectural profession we mainly think about solutions, and we constantly challenge how things are normally done. I think that’s a rare quality.

– Jakob Lange, Partner at BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) and Head of the BIG Ideas project unit

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I see a profession that is completely different from the one we know today. Traditional practice is broken – I yearn to see solutions that we can’t even imagine today.

– Marc Kushner, Founder of Architizer & HWKN Architects

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I think that the most important step is to just do it. It sounds bold but in the end you need to think about your business idea and how customers will use and pay for it. Finally, you need to implement it. Do not wait too long; make it a reality.

– Antje Kunze, Founder of SmartBetterCities

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My advice to architects who want to start their own business is to put creativity at the heart of their activity, and to try to invent new things that can be really useful for other people.

– Filippo Schiano di Pepe, Founder of CoContest

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As architects, we like to think that successful projects come because we have a great idea. But a project’s success is actually down to risk management by a practicing and experienced developer.

– Roger Zogolovitch, Founder of Solidspace

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Go for it. I think you just have to start small, and start with what you can do with your own hands and feet, and find a way to be innovative. I think the biggest trap that you can get into is borrowing a lot of money and then finding out that it doesn’t work.

– Matthew Griffin, Co-Founder of Deadline Architects

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Follow your heart and do what you love to do. However, if it’s business you want then you need to learn to take care not only of yourself but also your customers.

– Qi Su, Co-Founder Modelo.io

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Architects have to educate themselves a lot more in the areas of digitalization, programming, economics, and the invisible infrastructure of cities. It’s not enough to simply understand how a building is drawn and set up if you want to shape and think about the modern cities of tomorrow.

– Andreas Rauch, Co-Founder of CABIN SPACEY

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What are your favorite quotes that inspire you?

The post 17 Inspirational Archipreneur Quotes that will Motivate You in 2017 appeared first on Archipreneur.

This week’s interview is with Simon Becker and Andreas Rauch, founders of CABIN SPACEY.

The Berlin-based startup jumped on the trend of tiny houses coming from the US. But they added an innovative approach to where in a city they would place them.

And so a new genre for urban living was created. These cabins will be located on cities’ existing and yet unused spaces – rooftops, parking decks, gable walls and temporary lots.

The two architects of CABIN SPACEY have recently completed a successful crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, where they raised enough money to build the first prototype.

CABIN SPACEY’s cabins are modular, and built with a functional unit that provides a bed, bathroom and kitchen in one innovative block. The cabins are minimally invasive and can be either temporarily or permanently installed. Their size and shape make them ideal to transport and mass produce as standard products.

The concept of these resource-efficient cabins gives a young generation of singles and couples the flexible housing solution they deserve, and enables cities to keep up with growing demand for sustainable urban spaces and to maintain their own commitment to a smart, green agenda.

Keep reading to learn how these two architects started their own business, how they managed their successful crowdfunding campaign, and what their next steps will be.

I hope you enjoy the interview!

What are your respective backgrounds and when did you partner up?

Simon: I myself studied Architecture in Hamburg and Berlin, and fell in love with the field at first sight. But I always had my head around different things – Smart Cities, urban mobility, ecological designs – and I had a great enthusiasm for innovation and change.

Andreas is a true-bred architect with six years of professional experience on his back. Without any bells and whistles, we established CABIN SPACEY in April 2016 with a few pieces of paper and our signatures – fairly unsexy, but the company was founded. Done!

What made you decide to found CABIN SPACEY? Was there a particular moment that sealed the decision for you?

Andreas: We had the mindset that we wanted to feel free to make a choice: A boss, who is rather an artist and designer than a good manager, long working days, a poor salary, and a reward for the heart. Or: We would accept the challenge and climb into the ring ourselves and take the risk and responsibility to pursue a path that hadn’t been explored before.

Founding CABIN SPACEY was just a means to an end. The concept is all that really matters. You shouldn’t fall into the trap of confusing self-employment with entrepreneurship. It was more the idea of the business that wouldn’t let us go. We gave it a whole year to mature, grow, and become a sharper concept before we stepped into full time entrepreneurship.

Founding a company you believe in is a powerful tool for taking action and realizing the projects you really want to see in this world.

How do you finance your startup?

Simon: Apparently, that’s a key question for everyone toying with the idea to found something. There is absolutely no advice we can give, except to start! Just start your project, no matter how small or how slow, just start. Not being financed is not a nice thing – and it’s definitely not very German – but it shouldn’t stop you from taking action. We financed CABIN SPACEY through side jobs, previous clients, part-time jobs, maintaining websites, financial leftovers, and some love money (money you can access because there are people who love you!).

But we have always seen this as being part of the game. When I do a job for someone else now, I do it as CABIN SPACEY – no matter if it is as a bartender or a professional planner.

Now we’re starting to get our first orders and so we were crowdfunding. But here again – there’s no free lunch. To think that crowdfunding (especially donation-based) would just finance you and the start of your company without any prior grounding is a complete illusion.

You are raising money to build the first CABIN SPACEY prototype on the crowdfunding platform indigogo right now. Can you tell us a little about your process to get the crowdfunding campaign going? How much preparation time was necessary? Any dos and don’ts for our readers?

Simon: Crowdfunding has become unbelievably popular. It seems the golden way to get seedfunding for your project but to really get there you have to do a lot of homework. First, you have to know that there are different forms of crowdfunding, and that not every project is suitable for it.

Andreas: If you are in a really early stage of your business, you can compare crowdfunding to ringing a bell at your entire family, friends and neighbors, and asking them to give you money. Because that is exactly what you will do while you’re running the campaign.

Speaking from our own experience, it’s hard enough to make your friends back your idea and close to impossible to find strangers to contribute – especially in Germany. Even if you have very media attention like we had. But we were lucky to partner with smart in the “smart urban pioneers” competition, so we had a professional film crew, photographer and writer on board.

Producing this material needs care, time and deliberation; one shouldn’t underestimate that. The more time you have to focus on the preparation, the better your campaign will feel and the more fun you will have in promoting your baby.

Dos: If you and your product or service are able to inspire and excite people, you’re ripe for crowdfunding. Having an elaborate structure planned beforehand for the duration of the campaign is key. If you just leave everything to chance, you didn’t do your homework properly. Planning, planning, planning is our advice.

Don’ts: Choosing crowdfunding only because you don’t know how else to finance your project!

You have now raised the money necessary to build the prototype through your campaign. What are your next steps?

Andreas: We locked the doors and have finished the final product development and will then built Model Zero (our first cabin). We had an overwhelming response from manufacturers who came on-board to help provide their building parts in order to see CABIN SPACEY come to life. So we used the campaign as a way to create legitimacy for our project. That was, by the way, the greatest impact of the campaign.

So as soon as the first physical parts of the cabin come together, we will make sure that there will be media around to report our progress. Building a prototype unveils an unbelievably hard truth: one that you have created. Once it’s finished you will get feedback, and be both hated and admired for what you have done. And this is exactly what we are going to face.

This prototype needs to be a proof of concept and a marketing machine all at once. Having had the maximum number of people through the first cabin, we will listen carefully to their thoughts in order to adjust and overwork the product for serial production.

What is your business model for your startup? Can clients buy your cabins, rent them, or do you have another innovative idea?

Simon: Primarily, we want to provide “access” to CABIN SPACEY, and that includes selling the product. But we will start quickly to build up an operator model to rent out CABIN SPACEY ourselves for any short-term demands. The smartest way, which is far from now, will be to license CABIN SPACEY as a product and open further revenue streams through connected services like dry-cleaning, food delivery, entertainment… the list is endless.

The trend for tiny housing came from the US. Why do you think there is such a big market for tiny houses here?

Simon: Honestly I can’t think of any trend that hasn’t originally come from the US, but we feel that CABIN SPACEY serves a combination of trends and demands.

On the one hand, there is a debate about housing shortages and a huge megatrend for cities and densification. On the other hand, the Internet and globalization provide a very low barrier for access to travelling and local independency. That creates a need for easy access to real living space anywhere in the world. And we’re talking about living spaces – not just sleeping spots. “Living” implies culture, intimacy, idleness and, above all, a sense of home. This is something that hotels can’t provide.

How did it feel for both of you as architects to take the entrepreneurial route? Do you still work as (traditional) architects?

Simon: If you choose the path of entrepreneurship over the promise of leisure and a paycheck, you will get one thing for sure: adventure! The last year brought us more contacts, opportunities, fun, events, friends and satisfaction than any job we had carried out before. Being self-employed, however, is not the sole answer to your problems. Even so, it gives you the chance to steer the boat on your own. And, yes, there is a dark side to all this. And you will feel it, constantly. But you’ll likely get these kinds of feelings in a conventional job as well.

Being an architect is great fun and since we’re still working in the field of architecture we sometimes deal with basic, traditional architecture work. And we love that, too.

Do you have any advice for archipreneurs who are interested in starting their own business?

Simon: Architects have an ideal starting point for becoming entrepreneurs: they are used to project- and teamwork, they have a high tolerance for frustrating situations, they problem solve through visualizing, they have an ability to think and work at any scale, they have a deep technical understanding and, of course, they have great spatial thinking. The only thing the average architecture student is missing is access to an understanding of economics. To me, economics is the most exciting field besides architecture. But I see architects burdened with a social responsibility to carefully invent the cities in which we wish to live in the future. We cannot leave that to commercially-driven interests alone. So architects will have to understand the mechanics of the economy – and it’s good fun to challenge assumptions. Promise!

How do you see the future of the architectural profession? In which areas (outside of traditional practice) can you see major opportunities for up and coming developers and architects?

Andreas: Architects have to educate themselves a lot more in the areas of digitalization, programming, economics, and the invisible infrastructure of cities (data, interests, emotions, etc.) It’s not enough to simply understand how a building is drawn and set up if you want to shape and think about the modern cities of tomorrow.

And, yes, the question that permanently hangs above us: What is our job as architects today? The challenge for the old building masters was to create elaborate buildings. The challenge of today has shifted dramatically – but there are still plenty of solutions. Architects and urban designers are predestined to make up their minds and wrap their creative heads around them, even if it is not about solving problems to do with pure architecture and designing infrastructure.

About the founders Simon Becker and Andreas Rauch

Simon – vision and concept

As architect and driving force of the company, Simon has already realized a huge range of ideas across many freelance projects via architectural competitions, product design, and smart city research.

Andreas – architect and product development

Andreas is well versed in all areas of private and public architecture, having had a hand in design, detailed design, and project management. He is in charge of fine-tuning the CABIN SPACEY concept: from its initial design and building laws, all the way down to final realization.

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