They build for high-profile investors, global brands and celebrity chefs. In this interview, oow founders Sebastian Blancke and Mathis Malchow talk about perhaps Berlin’s most spectacular apartment, a working life that swings from wellies to 3D printing, and how a stint in Norman Foster’s legendary studio sparked their love of perfect detail.
Mathis Malchow (laughs): ‘That’s right — we can do that! And more to the point: if you want a piece like that in the first place, we’re exactly the people to call!’
Sebastian Blancke: ‘Across roughly 1,000 square metres we used only the finest materials and methods: there are curved leather wall panels, round glass doors, bathtubs milled from solid blocks of marble, and a nine-metre dining table built using shipbuilding techniques. The hull is American walnut; the top is Calacatta marble. A true show-stopper. Honestly, we could rave about that penthouse for hours — every last corner is perfectly resolved.’
Mathis: ‘It’s a misconception that you just need high-end materials and they’ll magically look beautiful. On the contrary: with that palette and those demanding constructions you have to read the textures precisely and develop a feel for them. Try shaping marble into a curve and then setting it against a leather panel with an ultra-slim joint — that’s an art. And the result is, of course, phenomenal.’
Mathis: ‘We were lucky to win loyal clients quite soon after founding the practice. We did a great deal for them — whether for the Bundestag, Leonardo Hotels, the Augustinum Group or biopharma company CureVac. After that, everything snowballed through word of mouth.’ Sebastian: ‘It’s the best advertising there is when happy clients recommend you — or commission the next project straightaway. After the penthouse, a €65-million scheme at Hamburg’s Gänsemarkt was on the cards for René Benko.’
Sebastian: ‘“Ordinary” is the wrong word — it suggests monotony, and we have none of that, in either the way we work or the subjects we tackle.’
Mathis: ‘On the creative side we still grab a felt-tip to sketch ideas. And of course you’ll also find us in proper wellies on muddy building sites!’ (laughs)
Sebastian: ‘At the same time, we work with state-of-the-art tools like 3D printing and BIM models. That lets us represent buildings digitally and in three dimensions down to the finest detail. We also use a lot of virtual reality in our visualisations. Clients can put on a VR headset and explore the finished building long before the first stone is laid — and they’re invariably thrilled.’
Mathis (laughs): ‘True — that was in 2005. Sebastian and I were working for Norman Foster in London, designing a concert hall in St Petersburg. A massive project on an unimaginable scale. Our team produced the legendary 660 drawings for it.’
Sebastian: ‘And how. In phases like that you find out if you really work well together. For us it was a bullseye. We were the last two in the office at one in the morning, then went out celebrating together, and were back at our desks by seven. It was an intense time, but we’d found our rhythm — and each other.’
Mathis: ‘We quickly realised we’re both perfectionists and we had that hunger. Even though the St Petersburg hall was our first project together, people immediately saw us as a unit: “the crazy Germans”.’ (laughs)
Sebastian: ‘I never really saw myself as an employee. I always knew I’d start my own practice.’
Mathis: ‘Same here. In the truest sense, it was about making a name for ourselves.’
Sebastian: ‘I can still picture us coming back from IKEA. We stood in this completely empty office and popped a bottle of fizz. We had desks — business was booming already!’ (laughs) ‘Seriously though, I just knew we’d laid the foundation for something big. And with this guy (points at Mathis), it could only work.’
Mathis: ‘Yes — we took on execution planning for heavyweights like Arno Brandlhuber and Hadi Teherani, while designing our own standout projects in parallel — like 7047, a radically minimalist house where even the bathtub was cast in raw concrete.’
Sebastian: ‘We cover the full spectrum of architectural services. Alongside execution planning, we accompany projects from the first sketch: we design, secure permits, prepare the performance specification and run the tenders for individual trades. For complex fit-outs we take on specialist construction management and coordinate all the trades under one roof.’
Mathis: ‘That probably sounds very technical. All you really need to remember is: they do everything — and they can do everything!’ (laughs)
Sebastian: “We don’t have one.
Mathis: ‘It may sound like a cliché, but we stand for bespoke solutions. We’re totally open — to different materials, to forms, to everything. What really matters is how the building will be used. Do the occupants want a crisp concrete expression, or would they prefer warmer materials? That’s the direction we take. So it isn’t a particular style that defines us, but an approach: drawing out the beauty from every space.’
Sebastian: ‘We put ourselves fully at the service of the brief — advocates for the best outcome. We want materials to sing in their own character, light to set the heart of a space on stage, and the use of the room to be understood — and optimised — at its core.’
Mathis: ‘It sums up how we approach our work — and how we understand architecture. Of course we’re designers, almost artists: we develop visions and concepts. At the same time, our task is to execute everything impeccably and steer large projects with serious responsibility.’
Sebastian: ‘Here’s how we work: Mathis draws Scheme A, I draw B and a colleague draws C. Then we lay them all out, discuss, and keep refining the version that brings the best of all three together — again and again — until it’s perfect. In English you’d call that “honing”.’
Mathis: ‘Design is like a composition. Think of a Dutch painter arranging three pieces of fruit — every proportion and every shaft of light is tuned to the last detail. That’s exactly our aim for a room.’
Sebastian: ‘Absolutely. We see ourselves as translators between worlds. The British and German ways of delivering building projects can be very different, and the regulations are, of course, not the same. Knowing and handling both is a huge plus. Our international clients — whether investors optimising portfolios here or preparing a market entry — receive a perfectly executed turnkey result without having to wrestle with the bureaucracy.’
Mathis: ‘Everyone brings a different spark, and we’re convinced the outcomes are far better than if we all shared the same background.’
Sebastian: ‘Our team is honestly the best you could wish for. Everyone puts so much heart into the work — it’s wonderful to see. And we as principals support them wherever we can. People can work from home as they choose. When a colleague on a fixed-term contract became pregnant, we made her permanent to say loud and clear: we want you here.’
Mathis: ‘Yes, that really matters to us — we do everything for our team because they do everything for us. We’re just a fantastic crew. Every year we also host a golf tournament for friends, family and of course clients. That probably sums up the OOW philosophy rather well: we don’t just build great places — we bring people together.’
Mathis: ‘Like any sensible boy from southern Germany, I drew cars as a kid.’ (laughs) ‘I could render an E-Class down to the tiniest detail. Eventually that got boring, so I started drawing houses. And since maths and art were my favourite subjects at school, it was obvious after my A-levels: architecture it is.’
Sebastian: ‘From Year 9 onwards I spent every long summer holiday working in an architecture practice. It felt a bit mad — everyone else went away and I built models.’ (laughs) ‘But I loved it so much I didn’t want to go back to school. Once I got to visit a horse clinic in Baden-Baden that the architect had just remodelled. We looked at the recovery room where the horses wake up after surgery, all padded so they don’t hurt themselves — and I was completely blown away. I thought: how cool is what architecture can do. I didn’t doubt for a second that this was the profession for me.’
