The most sustainable building is the one already built. The second is the one designed to last a century. We work toward both.
Practice Statement
A net contract with the earth.
Every project at Urban Frame is held to a single, non-negotiable test: does this building return more to the earth than it takes?
That return is measured in biodiversity restored, carbon avoided, water managed, materials kept in circulation, and lives — human and otherwise — made more habitable. It is calibrated at design stage, audited at completion, and reviewed every year for thirty years thereafter.
Our 2024 Long-Horizon Practice Statement is published in full and open to scrutiny.
Over twenty years of practice, the firm has gained a reputation for designing and delivering forward-looking, sustainable, high-performing projects. Every brief begins with the same question: what is the responsibility of this place to the people, the city and the century it will outlive?
2025 Practice Audit
Our measured commitments — across the studio’s 32 active projects in 2025.
216kg/m²
Embodied carbon, mean
91% ↑+12
Primary materials, local
Mains water, design target
Biodiversity net gain
Operational Principles
Five working rules.
These are not aspirations. They are clauses written into our contracts of engagement with every client — and the project does not proceed if they are not agreed.
i.
Reuse before build.
IGBC NZE
GRIHA
No new building is initiated until the partner-in-charge has documented why existing fabric cannot serve the brief. Of our 2025 commissions, 41% are adaptive reuse — a deliberate, written target.
ii.
Reuse before build.
IGBC NZE
GRIHA
No new building is initiated until the partner-in-charge has documented why existing fabric cannot serve the brief. Of our 2025 commissions, 41% are adaptive reuse — a deliberate, written target.
iii.
Reuse before build.
IGBC NZE
GRIHA
No new building is initiated until the partner-in-charge has documented why existing fabric cannot serve the brief. Of our 2025 commissions, 41% are adaptive reuse — a deliberate, written target.
iv.
Reuse before build.
IGBC NZE
GRIHA
No new building is initiated until the partner-in-charge has documented why existing fabric cannot serve the brief. Of our 2025 commissions, 41% are adaptive reuse — a deliberate, written target.
v.
Reuse before build.
IGBC NZE
GRIHA
No new building is initiated until the partner-in-charge has documented why existing fabric cannot serve the brief. Of our 2025 commissions, 41% are adaptive reuse — a deliberate, written target.
Case study · 2023
Olive House, Athens — a residence built from a single quarry.
A 480 m² family house in the Pendeli foothills, constructed almost entirely from limestone quarried 12 km away. The house is heated and cooled passively. It will not need a mains energy connection for the foreseeable future.
118 kg/m²
Embodied carbon
+62%
Biodiversity net gain
0 L/m²/yr
Mains water
120 yr
Designed service life
The project was awarded the RIBA Regional Sustainability Award (2023) and shortlisted for the Stirling Prize (2025). It is the subject of a forthcoming monograph by Lars Müller.
Standards & Accountability
Independent certifications & signatories.
We commit to independent audit at every level — at studio, at project, and at the level of individual material sourcing chains. Where formal standards exist, we adopt them. Where they do not, we publish our own methodology.
B
Since 2021
B-Corp Certified
Among the first 30 architectural practices globally to achieve B-Corp status. Re-certified annually.
B
Since 2021
B-Corp Certified
Among the first 30 architectural practices globally to achieve B-Corp status. Re-certified annually.
B
Since 2021
B-Corp Certified
Among the first 30 architectural practices globally to achieve B-Corp status. Re-certified annually.
B
Since 2021
B-Corp Certified
Among the first 30 architectural practices globally to achieve B-Corp status. Re-certified annually.
B
Since 2021
B-Corp Certified
Among the first 30 architectural practices globally to achieve B-Corp status. Re-certified annually.
B
Since 2021
B-Corp Certified
Among the first 30 architectural practices globally to achieve B-Corp status. Re-certified annually.
B
Since 2021
B-Corp Certified
Among the first 30 architectural practices globally to achieve B-Corp status. Re-certified annually.
B
Since 2021
B-Corp Certified
Among the first 30 architectural practices globally to achieve B-Corp status. Re-certified annually.
Open practice
All of our project data is open source.
Methodologies, embodied-carbon spreadsheets, material passports and post-occupancy audits for every completed project since 2021 are published openly on GitHub for the use of any practice, researcher or student.
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Our Studio
Bengaluru
Hyderabad
Singapore
