Fig. 01 — River Commons, Chattogram
X 22.3569° N · Y 91.7832° E
Civic porch · terracotta screen · 1:20
Completed 2025
Northfold Architects · Dhaka / Chattogram
Buildings drawn from the ground they stand on
We are a 24-person practice designing civic buildings, housing and careful reuse. Every project starts as a hand-drawn section through its site and stays in one shared model until the last bolt is in.
View selected work
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Est. 2011
38 built projects
Civic · Housing · Reuse
In progress: 2 projects across Bangladesh
01 · Featured project
Courtyard House
Dhaka, Bangladesh · 2024
Fig. 02 — Brick layers around the courtyard
A single, planted void anchors three generations of domestic life while drawing air through the house.
Every room opens onto a planted interior court for daylight, air and a shared view. Brick screens temper heat and privacy while keeping the house open to its dense neighbourhood.
Site
Dhaka, BD
Type
Multi-generational home
Area
680 m²
Structure
Concrete frame
Envelope
Hand-set brick
Status
Completed 2024
Read the case study
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02 · Selected work
Recent buildings
All 38 projects →
RC-01
River Commons
A riverfront learning and gathering space that pairs civic rooms with a shaded public landscape.
Portland, Oregon, USA
CH-02
Courtyard House
A compact multi-generational home organized around light, planting, and cool cross-ventilation.
Austin, Texas, USA
OM-03
Old Market Hall
An incremental conversion of a former market into studios, workshops, and a neighborhood food hall.
Detroit, Michigan, USA
03 · Process
How a building gets drawn
01
Survey
We walk the site at different hours, measure it by hand and log the sun, wind, trees and neighbours before drawing a single line.
Weeks 1–4
02
Section
One hand-drawn cut through the ground sets the building's height, its light and how it meets the slope. Everything else follows from it.
Weeks 4–8
03
Model
Architects, engineers and the builder work in one shared model, checked every week, so the drawings and the costs never drift apart.
Months 3–9
04
Build
We stay on site through construction, with a weekly walk-through and a live list of open issues that the client can read at any time.
Until handover
38
Buildings completed since 2011
112k
Square metres now in use
41%
Of projects reuse an existing structure
24
Architects and engineers in two studios
04 · Start a project
Have a site in mind?
Send us an address, a rough brief and a budget range. We reply within a week, and the first site visit is free within 200 km of Lisbon or Oslo.
studio@northfold.example
Lisbon studio
Rua das Flores 28, 1200-195 Lisboa
Oslo studio
Thorvald Meyers gate 41, 0555 Oslo
Northfold
Architecture and reuse, from Lisbon and Oslo.
Careers
2 open roles
2 open roles
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