No
Border
Studio
Shaping the future of urban spaces
KS is launching a new urban studio focusing on masterplanning and urban design.
Established in 1998 Kjellander Sjöberg has developed a reputation for making inspiring buildings and places dedicated to positive social and environmental change.
No Border Studio is part of our latest evolution; the formation of a specialist spatial design agency that reflects our profound interest in the future of urban places. Synthesizing the interdisciplinary principles of sustainable city-making with the design of streets and spaces, No Border Studio makes highly granular creative masterplans to shape new neighbourhoods and communities at a human scale.
The city, as such, is the foundation of all our projects.
A place to explore and expand on.
We are all things urban
No Border Studio is a hands-on platform for driving a broader discourse on spatial practice to tackle current challenges at a larger city scale. It is a repository of current urban design and masterplanning best practice, as well as a catalyst and incubator for original research-based innovation to implement alternative thinking, methods, and tools for sustainable urban transformation. Our mission is to unpack critical themes that affect our environments to find new perspectives with particular attention to value-added characterful placemaking, regeneration and place-specific content.
We are all things urban; our specialist expertise includes masterplanning, urban design, creative brief development, public realm strategies, 15-minute city concepts, high street & town centre recovery & transformation, meanwhile uses, cultural animation in the public realm, and participative and co-design processes. And much more.
We are interested in places that welcome expression, foster engagement, and build-in durability
We make healthy, inclusive, people-centred neighbourhoods that are convivial and welcoming places to live, work and play; places with the potential to inspire, delight and surprise – qualities that nourish our daily lives. Our ‘urban ecosystems’ bring together a rich and diverse range of themes including social care, access to opportunity, walkable & bike-friendly streets, biodiversity, local microclimates, green mobility and shared public experience to support communities to thrive.
No method is our method
As every place is unique, we reject preconceptions; we don’t impose a set ‘way’ – we enable each project to inform our approach from first principles. No Border Studio works at the intersection of multiple territories, at the point at which narratives, innovation, activism and making meet. It is a collaborative agency that deliberately blurs boundaries between different disciplines, stakeholders and communities to combine skills and talents across typologies and scale, regionally, nationally and internationally – with no borders.
Conversations with our collaborators have been our greatest catalyst for driving change
No Border Studio operates cross-sectionally within Kjellander Sjöberg and engages in a rich and constructive discourse with clients, community groups and bespoke design teams on key projects. We draw on inspiration, curiosity and energy, bringing leadership and creativity to design new programmes and vision-driven masterplans that enrich the everyday experience for all. We listen, collaborate, stitch, connect, improve, repair, allow, initiate change, promote good growth and empower vibrant and sustainable communities to flourish.
Our only borders are our planetary boundaries
The only borders we recognize are our shared planetary boundaries. Guided by our collective responsibility to be socially responsive within these, we reduce, re-make, re-use, preserve and adapt to inhabit our common fragile ecology as lightly as possible. The principles and practices of sustainable city-making underpin and guide our processes. A dedication to truly engage with the current environmental crisis lies at the heart of our working ethos. We promote urban generosity as the spatial context for thriving public space and the social dynamics of progress and renewal.
Our mission is to unpack critical themes that affect our environments to find new perspectives with particular attention to value-added characterful placemaking, regeneration and place-specific content.
We operate cross-sectionally and engage in a rich discourse
No Border Studio works out of the Kjellander Sjöberg studios in Stockholm, Malmö & London. It is led by Angela Woda and Astrid Gabrielsson.
Angela Woda
Senior Architect SAR/MSA ARBV
Ma. Arch, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology RMIT, Melbourne, Australia
Angela provides strategic creative design and leadership for major urban design & masterplanning projects. An expert on city-building best practice and cross disciplinary collaborations, she heads research and innovation in relation to current issues facing urban environments.
Astrid Gabrielsson
Architect SAR/MSA ARB
MA, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Copenhagen, Denmark
With a specialist expertise in drawing on local narratives and new perspectives to frame future urban places, Astrid leads project teams bringing her experience of planning and regulatory processes to shape the inventive transformation and design of urban spaces.
Expertise