FORMA®

We are architects, designers and careful observers. Different perspectives, brought together by an interest in how places make us feel.

Open studio with long shared worktables and daylight

Independent in spirit.
Connected by design.

FORMA began around a single table in Copenhagen. Elena Varga and a small group of collaborators shared the belief that good architecture grows from attention: to the site, to the brief and to the people who will live with the result.

Today, our four studios work as one practice. A project might begin with a conversation in London, a material study in Marrakech and a design review in Copenhagen. Each has a small, consistent team that stays close to the work from the first sketch to the last detail.

We do not have a house style. We have a way of working: listen carefully, ask useful questions, and make fewer decisions with greater care.

Meet the people behind the practice
Light and shadow across a quiet courtyard passage

Attentive to place.
Open to possibility.

We believe architecture begins with listening—to the climate, the landscape, the existing building and the people around it. The first task is to understand what is already there.

From that understanding, we look for a clear idea. One that can hold a project together as it moves through the practical demands of making a building.

We value materials that age well, rooms that can change and details that can be repaired. A project is complete when it is ready to begin its life with other people.

01Place+

Read what is already there.

Climate, landscape and local knowledge are the first materials of a project. We begin by looking and listening.

02Light+

Let daylight shape the room.

Openings, depth and shade create different atmospheres throughout the day. Light is a building material in its own right.

03Material+

Make fewer, better choices.

We favour honest surfaces, repairable details and the skill of the people who make them.

04People+

Design for everyday life.

The measure of a place is how comfortably people can inhabit it, adapt it and make it their own.

05Time+

Leave room for change.

A building should become richer through use. Flexible rooms and enduring construction make space for its next chapter.

A continuing story01 / 06

1999

A table, two architects.

Elena Varga establishes the practice in Copenhagen, beginning with small residential commissions.

01 / A continuing story

1999

1999 — architectural study

A table, two architects.

Elena Varga establishes the practice in Copenhagen, beginning with small residential commissions.

02 / A continuing story

2006

2006 — architectural study

A wider conversation.

Our first international commission brings a new set of landscapes, climates and collaborators.

03 / A continuing story

2013

2013 — architectural study

London joins the practice.

A second studio opens, bringing interior architecture into the centre of our work.

04 / A continuing story

2018

2018 — architectural study

A place to stay.

The hospitality team forms around a shared interest in the domestic scale of welcome.

05 / A continuing story

2023

2023 — architectural study

Closer to the craft.

The Marrakech studio opens under Samir El Mansouri, deepening our work with local materials.

06 / A continuing story

2026

2026 — architectural study

Still asking questions.

Four connected studios, 84 projects imagined and realised, and a continuing conversation about what comes next.

The work is always
a shared achievement.

Find your way to us

Copenhagen

Kronprinsessegade 8
1306 Copenhagen K, Denmark

copenhagen@forma.example+45 00 00 00 00

London

24 Clerkenwell Road
London EC1M 5PQ, United Kingdom

london@forma.example+44 20 0000 0000

Marrakech

18 Rue de la Liberté, Guéliz
40000 Marrakech, Morocco

marrakech@forma.example+212 000 000 000

New York

180 Franklin Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222, United States

newyork@forma.example+1 212 000 0000

Studio history, people, addresses and practice figures are fictional demonstration content.