Places that
hold up

Crafting durable spaces
Timber house entrance
Timber and glass residence at golden hour

Residential

Houses that hold a family's whole life, tuned to the light, the slope and the way you actually move through a day at home.

Commercial

Workplaces and retail that earn their keep. We shape rooms people want to be in, then make the plan pay for itself for years.

Civic & Culture

Libraries, halls and galleries built to gather a town. Generous, durable and quietly proud of the place they belong to.

Industrial

Sheds, studios and plants where the logistics come first and the details still get the same care as any front door.

Studio

A small studio that draws by hand before it draws by machine

Learn more
Estab:
2004

Two architects opened a room above a hardware store in Portland and set out to make buildings worth keeping. Two decades on, the standard has not moved.

The Grayform studio, an open workspace with people
Grayform

Building the groundwork

How a place gets its footing

From first sketch to the final handrail, one studio carries the idea the whole way, so nothing gets lost between the drawing and the built room.
We start with the site and the people, not a style. The building that follows is quiet, useful and made to age well in its own weather.
Low-carbon structure, daylight before wiring, and materials we can name the source of. Comfort that does not cost the earth to run.
The joints owners never notice are the ones we obsess over. Good detailing is what turns a plan into a place that feels right.
Kestrel Arts Center
Quarry Lane Court
Larch Hill Retreat
(01)Kestrel Arts Center(2022)

Civic Craft

Detail study

We help a town hear itself, shaping sound out of concrete shells and generous, daylit public rooms.

Beyond the built world, we help clients picture spaces that live only on screen, from exhibition sets to the digital rooms of a growing brand.

Faceted glass tower facade
Projects finished
0

Homes, halls and workplaces delivered across the Pacific Northwest since the studio opened its doors.

Drawings a month
0

A working studio that still draws by hand first, then proves every idea in careful digital models.

Trusted partners
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Engineers, builders and makers we return to because they care about the last ten percent as much as we do.

The people

The people behind it

The work is only ever as good as the people who care for it. Here are a few of the architects and designers you would actually meet.

Portrait of Nils Aaberg

Nils Aaberg

Principal Architect
nils@grayform.example
(555) 210-4487
Portrait of Mara Devlin

Mara Devlin

Studio Director
mara@grayform.example
(555) 210-4487
Portrait of Priya Vaduri

Priya Vaduri

Senior Architect
Portrait of Theo Marchetti

Theo Marchetti

Design Architect
theo@grayform.example
(555) 210-4487
Award

Recognised work

Every project begins with a long look at the place it belongs to. Now and then that care is noticed by our peers.

Cascadia Design Medal2024
Regional Timber Prize2023
Civic Building Honor2022
Northwest Housing Award2021
Adaptive Reuse Citation2020
Studio of the Year, Shortlist2019
Trusted collaborators