Franziska Holzmann

What Was Your Life Like Before hej.build?

Back then, I had a notebook. Today, I have Notion. That pretty much describes our way of working at hej.build, because anyone who knows Notion understands what that means: structured, transparent, synchronous, and connected.

How Do You Stay Up to Date?

Very broadly! My day starts and ends with a headline check via FAZ, SPON, SZ, Zeit, TAZ, Bunte, Gala (roughly in that order) and reading selected articles. Besides, I enjoy reading form, various architecture and design newsletters, following LinkedIn and Instagram. But most of all, I like to stay informed through exchanges with friends and like-minded individuals, as well as through travel, museum and exhibition visits, and events.

What Is Your Favorite Building and Why?

Ask me something easier... My conscious perception of architecture began with the International Style, which for me as a child was the epitome of “modern.”

A key experience for me was the residential buildings by Alvar Aalto. I love details and materials, good floor plans, and nature. With Aalto, all this comes together. He transformed modernism into architecture that faces both people and nature. And that with very compact and intelligent use of space. More relevant today than ever.

If I really have to name a specific building? My grandfather's house. Designed and planned by him as a young family man. For me, it's perfect in proportion, with many loving, well-thought-out details that I only recognized and understood over the course of my professional career.