FRAME's latest title, Encounters by Design purchase a copy here), explores Atelier Markgraph’s pioneering work through the conceptual lens of designing spaces for intentional interactions.

When was the last time you walked into a space that struck you to your core, a space that elicited a deep emotional reaction? What was going through your mind? What stood out to you? Was there anything specific? Perhaps a formal anomaly or an experiential eccentricity that, to this day, you still cannot explicitly comment upon?

Over the last four decades, Atelier Markgraph, a Frankfurt-based spatial communication agency, has focused on designing with these very questions in mind, bringing to the fore a renewed creative agenda, leading to new thinking, strategies and tools for innovation and discovery. This monongraph, Encounters by Design, is a comprehensive investigation which delves into the studio’s portfolio through the conceptual lens of encounters. Selected projects evoke a diverse range of sociability and intimacy, shedding light on the lives of individuals within society and the built environment; reviving yearslong experiences, personal connections, public discoveries and private embraces.

Mostly focusing its attention on technologically mediated narratives, the German outfit sets out to enhance senses of immersion within a familiar world. Atelier Markgraph also strives to communicate novel perspectives by bringing out key layers of sensory engagements for exceptional spatial encounters, setting the audience’s dynamic journey against this backdrop of creative energy and romantic zeal.

The title explores non-hierarchical ‘families’ of projects that reflect intangible features, such as parameters, traits, qualities, effects, ontological attributes, etc. The unexpected nature of these novel groupings is designed to highlight Atelier Markgraph’s eagerness to leverage encounters to create vividly immersive and engaging holistic experiences where the real and the virtual become inextricably intertwined. This cluster-like organisation also calls attention to Atelier Markgraph’s genuine desire to craft spatial stories that are not only rooted in the contemporary moment but also growing within it. In doing so, questions relating to rich, ‘indirect’ properties, as opposed to traditional, ‘direct’ ones, are prompted and exposed. The aim was to formulate and verbalize key aspects of the studio’s projects that lie beyond mere material typologies. Ultimately, this monograph enables the reader to intimately engage with Atelier Markgraph's work from inside and out.

The chapter titled ‘Thresholds’ delves into the interface condition and its role in organising objects and subjects, creating encounters along edges. ‘Spectres’ presents ghostly and transient settings for meaningful interactions. ‘Patterns’ investigates how repetitive arrays of objects position individuals within new meeting constellations. ‘Convivialities’ emphasizes the social nature of human interactions, celebrating friendly and supportive circumstances. ‘Migrations’ focuses on movement and dynamism; on fluid and open-ended encounters. ‘Plasticities’ explores interactions between persons, sculptural bodies and environments. Finally, ‘Metabolisms’ situates encounters within universes of pulses, cycles and machine-like transformations.

Through essays and case studies, this book highlights Atelier Markgraph’s distinct approach to world-building, which joins technological sophistication with immersive spatial narratives. These projects represent a deliberate and multidimensional selection of Atelier Markgraph’s work, offering a thought-provoking exploration of encounters by design. 

Purchase your copy of Encounters by Design, here.