We are onswerk.

Three partners, three locations, one studio. We work distributed from Prague, Amsterdam and Košice — deliberately, because we believe that a diversity of perspectives on today's world benefits our work.

Mission

Leave a place better than we came to know it.

We approach every change to the built environment with the ambition of improving it for the people who use it. “Better” does not mean one thing:

spatially
clearer, more permeable, more pleasant to be in
environmentally
with a smaller footprint and greater resilience
socially
more accessible and more used
culturally
respecting what the place carries
functionally
serving its purpose better

Vision

To transform places without losing what is valuable about them.

We want to contribute to a built environment that looks to the future, respects its past and puts people at its centre. Our goal is lasting value in all our projects, so that our work stands the test of time. Today's world calls for designs that can respond to the needs of a rapidly changing society. In a time of ongoing climate change, the principles of sustainability, the circular economy, biodiversity and careful use of resources are a matter of course in our projects. Our thinking and decisions rest on knowledge of the place and its context, on data and on social responsibility.

Our work

onswerk is open to new challenges and to constantly changing ways of working.

We do not build our studio around one address: one building, one team, everything under one roof. The centre of our practice is not a physical office but the client, the challenge, the task, knowledge, collaboration and shared responsibility.

The founding partners of onswerk bring experience from renowned practices and major international projects as well as from public administration. For each project we assemble a tailored team, joined by external experts as needed, to create an inspiring creative environment with a diversity of disciplines, intensive dialogue and open communication. We work closely with specialists in landscape architecture and interior design as well as in technical disciplines, engineering, cost planning and project management. This set-up lets us assemble a team qualified for the specific requirements of each project and closely connected to construction practice.

Team

Matouš Pluhař

Founding partner · Prague / Olomouc

Leads the studio's projects in the Czech Republic and coordinates its work from the first contact with a client through to completion. A lasting curiosity and openness towards new technologies and methods come naturally to him.

matous.pluhar@onswerk.eu

Anja Blechen

Founding partner · Amsterdam

Licensed architect (NL) with more than 25 years of experience in diverse and complex projects in culture, infrastructure and residential architecture. She has a talent for quickly getting to the heart of a project.

anja.blechen@onswerk.eu

Petr Kropp

Founding partner · Košice / Amsterdam

Licensed architect (NL/CZ) with more than 35 years of experience in architecture and urbanism. He brings experience from the other side of the table — from public administration as Chief Architect of the City of Košice and founding director of the Karlovy Vary City Architecture Office.

petr.kropp@onswerk.eu

Collaborators

onswerk is a creative network of architects and specialists with whom we collaborate on specific projects.

Current

Past