atelier: noun . /əˈtel.i.eɪ
    plural at·el·iers

1. a workshop or studio for a designer 2. a place to train the skills of a craft 3. old French: a carpenter’s workshop

Atelier for Design focuses on durable architecture that is both purposeful in form and thoughtful in craft. With roots in Belgium, the office brings a variety of knowledge in areas such as material application, housing typologies and energy efficient building strategies.


In architecture, the term design is used to describe the iterative process of orchestrating a dialogue between the tangible and the intangible issues surrounding a site, a program and form. It is the act of thinking through various scales, relationships, disciplines and stakeholders in order to arrive at an appropriate solution.

Hans-Christian Karlberg, architect & founder, has taught at the School of Architecture, University of Minnesota. With students he encourages correlative thinking, i.e. continuously finding ways in which we understand relationships between the detail and the whole, between society and the built form, between theory and practice. 
The atelier is endlessly curious about the multi-layered context surrounding a place that is made up of cutural memory, personal stories and the natural environment evolving over time.

The Atelier is situated on territorial land of the Dakota people. We acknowledge the indigenous presence and their rights to land & water.