With more than 30 years of experience, Schmidt Hammer Lassen (SHL) is one of Scandinavia’s most recognised and award-winning architectural practices.
The studio was founded in Aarhus, Denmark, in 1986 by architects Morten Schmidt, Bjarne Hammer, and John F. Lassen.
Working out of studios located in Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Shanghai, we provide urban planning and architectural design services all over the world, with a distinguished track record as designers of international high-profile architecture. We are deeply committed to the Nordic architectural traditions based on democracy, welfare, aesthetics, light, sustainability, and social responsibility.
Schmidt Hammer Lassen is known as both design-focused and client-focused; a firm that produces extraordinary designs and delivers them with extraordinary efficiency and detail. In 2018, SHL became part of Perkins&Will enabling us to maintain this critical part of our identity while having the support, technology, and reach of much larger organisation.
Through our shared collaborative platforms and management systems, our integrated delivery approach offers a single trading entity, combining design excellence with local presence and seamless delivery.
Digital Innovation & Research
Through the partnership with Perkins&Will, we gain access to a wider group of firms, researchers, and academia, that discover and apply new knowledge across the groups’ design professions. Besides our own Innovation & Digital Practice team that supports our projects both locally and internationally, we collaborate with a dedicated team working across all brands under the Perkins&Will umbrella, to ensure that the latest design technology innovations are applied to our interdisciplinary design process.
meet our talented team
Join us
We are always looking for talented people with an international horizon and a visionary mindset to join our offices around the world.
Schmidt Hammer Lassen is shaped by the skilled and ambitious people who work across our studios. It is in our DNA to be studious and analytical, curious, and perceptive in working towards our shared goal of creating architecture and urban environments that tackle global issues of social, environmental, and economic sustainability. We educate and employ in-house experts in all major building certifications systems, and we value diversity – in opinion, cultural and professional backgrounds as well as in levels of expertise and experience.
Working with complex projects across many scales and typologies all over the world calls for an extraordinary level of knowledge, expertise, and creativity. Equally significant is the ability to approach each project through a curious and contextual lens. This involves analysing the existing urban fabric, embracing the perspectives and insights of present and future users, and immersing ourselves into the local culture and traditions. This all informs the creative process of creating places of great cultural resonance, rooted in the communities and environments that they serve.
Our staff across our studios stem from more than 30 different nationalities, and each member thus contributes with a unique set of skills and cultural and professional insights, which translates into the projects that we work on. Bringing in multiple perspectives generates a dynamic and diverse working environment, promoting social connectivity, inclusion, and a culture of learning.
To bring forward the best ideas, we promote a flat management structure that leaves room for everyone to be heard, regardless of their seniority and background.
All our staff participate in and develop professional forums of knowledge sharing, contributing to nurturing our joint creativity and skill set. This includes training session on the latest technologies, seminars on sustainable food systems, water-colouring, and hand-sketching courses and much more. Through mentorship, we actively nurture talent throughout the organisation, creating opportunities for continuous growth for the individual, for project teams, and for Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects as a whole.
Through morning swims in the harbour, our “SHL Days” study trips, annual summer, and Christmas parties as well as communal eating during lunch breaks, we encourage a culture of social connectivity. A workplace where people come not only to work but also to share meaningful moments and interaction with their colleagues.
