Architecture is most powerful when it changes how you live — not just where.
I founded Studio Graf on a simple belief: great architecture begins with listening. Listening to how someone wants to feel in their home, how they move through their days, what they need from the spaces around them. From there it becomes a rigorous process of design thinking and craft. The result, when everything aligns, is a home that doesn't just look remarkable — it changes the way you live in it.
As a child, my grandfather's architecture office felt like another world. Years later, I realised it had become mine.
My grandfather, Heinrich Graf, was a renowned Swiss architect whose practice flourished in the 1960s and 70s. His work was deeply rooted in the modernist tradition — rigorous, clear, resolved. As a child I spent a good amount of time in his office, surrounded by models and drawings, absorbing a world where ideas became buildings. I didn't have the language for it then, but something about that environment never left me.
It was only at the end of my studies that the connection became real. I designed my first project — a house for my mother in Switzerland — and had the opportunity to sit with Heinrich and exchange ideas. For a young architecture student, that conversation meant a great deal.
A book about his life and work still sits on my shelf. The visual language is different. The principles are not.
House for Austrian actor O.W. Fischer by Heinrich Graf - Vernate, Switzerland, 1959/60
Large firms taught me the discipline. Leaving them taught me what I actually cared about.
Before founding Studio Graf I spent years leading design teams at international award-winning firms — a luxury Kempinski resort on the coast of Oman, twin office towers on the banks of the Jialing River in Chongqing, and a major masterplan for the vitalization of Dalian Harbour in northeastern China.
That experience gave me technical rigour and the ability to hold complexity without losing clarity. But it also made clear what I was most drawn to: the direct relationship between a space and the person who lives in it. That is what I came to the Bay Area to build.
Kempinski Resort Hotel - Muscat, Oman (Design lead for Woods Bagot)
You always work directly with me — from the first conversation to the final detail.
Studio Graf is deliberately small. I lead every project as design principal — every meeting, every design decision, every site visit. For each project I assemble a carefully selected team of specialist collaborators: structural engineers, lighting designers, landscape architects, and contractors chosen for their expertise and commitment to quality.
There are no layers here, no handoffs. When you work with Studio Graf, you work with me. That directness is not a feature of how we operate — it is the whole point.
The best results come from the best conversations — and from the work done before a single line is drawn.
Every project begins the same way: investing time upfront to understand the brief deeply, test assumptions early, and identify real constraints before design begins. This is where projects succeed or fail.
We design with rigour, not with fashion. The principles that make a great building — clarity of plan, honest materials, spaces scaled to how people actually live — are not trends. We also believe budget discipline is part of good design, not a constraint on it. And through all of it, the client is a collaborator. Your vision drives everything.
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Testimonials
What our clients and collaborators say.
“Working with Studio Graf was a great pleasure, we thoroughly enjoyed the collaborative design process. Creating our dream home came with the challenges of integrating highly specialized systems and extensive customization. Not only did the team focus on the big picture results, but also attended to the most refined details. In all, working with Studio Graf has exceeded our expectations on many levels and our home has immensely shaped the way we live and enhances our appreciation for good design and technology. Without hesitation, we give the team our highest recommendation as an exceptional architecture studio looking after the desires and needs of their clients.”
Client & Owner
Glen Park Residence · San Francisco
“As a CM professional I have worked closely with Fabian and Trisha on several high end residential projects in the city. I can and do highly recommend Studio Graf to clients considering such projects. Fabian’s design sensibilities, I have found, are leading edge and internationally inspired. We have enjoyed working with him and Trisha closely on these projects and found them responsive, collaborative, and detailed. Traits that new clients should consider, as these traits in my three decades of experience, lead to successful, exciting one of a kind building projects that are truly works of art.”
Doug Spooner
Owner’s Rep · SF
“Studio Graf was great to work with, largely in part to their professionalism, solutions based approach and responsiveness at every stage of the project. The challenges of our roof deck addition that Studio Graf inherited midway were quite significant, but yet they were able to step in to redesign and manage the project efficiently and with great success. The roof deck turned out to be an invaluable addition to our home with prime views of the city and well planned design. It has dramatically changed the way we use the house. I would definitely work with Studio Graf in the future because they proved to be an effective team leader.”
Client & Owner
Dolores Heights · San Francisco
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