Studio Max Gerthel is a multidisciplinary design studio working across scales from architecture and adaptive reuse to interiors, art installations, and bespoke furniture. Founded in Beijing in 2010, the studio emerged through speculative research projects and installations that critically engaged with China's rapid urban transformation.

Since relocating to Malmö, Sweden in 2017, we have developed particular expertise in the thoughtful transformation of existing buildings, approaching each project through careful analysis and resource inventory. Our practice thrives on collaboration with architects, artists, and local craftsmen, fostering iterative methods of mutual exchange.

Every project begins with deep attention to the site and its conditions. whether designing a building, crafting furniture, or conceptualising a public art project. We provide both solutions and problems rooted in broad knowledge and long perspectives. Understanding that design's most powerful element—desire—transcends pure logic, our work seeks to evoke this through spatial composition, material complexity, and refined execution.

Background

Max Gerthel is an architect, designer and curator working in the fields of architecture, art and design. He founded Studio Max Gerthel with the aim of using design as a method of navigating the complex terrain of early 21st century China. Between 2011 and 2016 he was also co-director the Institute For Provocation, a workspace and research platform for artists and architects. Max Gerthel holds an MA in architecture from Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture in Copenhagen. He has taught architecture at Tsinghua University, Academy of Art & Design in Beijing, Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, and CAFA IFC.

In 2019, Max Gerthel co-founded SPARK, a platform for exhibitions and projects in the intersection of art, architecture and academic research. The platform operates in Malmö with an exhibition space on Båstadsgatan 4, in the multi-ethnic neighbourhood of Sorgenfri.