Bio: Niels Strøyer Christophersen, Founder/CEO of Frama
Hometown/Studio Location: Copenhagen, Østerbro
Describe what you make: Frama is a universe representing home interiors from accessories, lighting, furniture to kitchens, care products and spatial projects. The DNA of the pieces and projects is very personal, balanced and possess characteristics of being straightforward and pure somehow.
The most important thing you’ve designed to date: Frama as a whole, thinking of it as a piece of architecture- its own eco-system. Obviously it’s a team effort but I feel the company has a unique work-culture and DNA that are youthful, open-minded and international.
Describe the problem your work solves: We offer a curated selection of goods that are gentle and human in spaces and environments that hopefully inspire people to live a wholesome and positive life.
Describe the project you are working on now: Frama is in a phase where we are working on different “packeting” formats of our universe. Recently, we opened a Frama Care focused shop-in-shop in Japan, Tokyo in the Parco Department Store. It’s been a healthy and challenging exercise to create a tailored but scalable experience of our Care Collection and now we are working on the same format but for our Home Collection. Our F&B universe has been growing since October 2020, when we opened Apotek 57, located in our Studio Store spaces, a micro-bakery and eatery. We recently ventured out, opening a wine-bar and eatery called Bar Vitrine and most recently a specialty coffee bar called CABIN. Now we are looking into a larger restaurant and social space, located in Copenhagen as well, that can facilitate more than conventional dining.
A new or forthcoming project we should know about: We recently introduced Cabin, an intimate coffee bar that aims to celebrate simplicity and embraces living deliberately with the knowledge that the best things in life are often the most basic. With a focus on creating a calm, welcoming environment, the new coffee bar serves as an antidote to its busy location of Store Kongensgade. The simple pine wood interior takes its inspiration from two revered works, both built and written: Le Corbusier’s Cabanon in Cap Moderne, and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden — a space for reflection, pared down to its true essentials.
We also have a new design coming out in 2026 by British designer Michael Antrobus. The language is quite different from our current selection but I really see this collection complimenting the existing range and also adding to our DNA.
What you absolutely have to have in your studio: Music is really nice to have to break the silence a bit. I appreciate NTS radio – a great place to discover music. Coffee during the day is also difficult to avoid and during late afternoon it’s nice to have a rye bread snack with cheese and a sprinkle of salt flakes.
What you do when you’re not working: To be honest my life isn’t really categorized in work and not work. My life is work and work is life – this is something that I appreciate tremendously and I have been aiming to live in this way.
I love reading books, especially about architecture and philosophy in the same genre. Books like A Pattern Language, Human Space (org title: Raum und Mench), Japan-ness in Architecture, Michel Gerber Langage I by Orthos Logos. But also biographies like My Dear Bomb (Yohji Yamamoto) and Kitch by Gillo Dorfles.
The last two years I’ve been renovating two properties from 1960 with thatch roofs. I call the project “Reference Prospect” because it’s my first architecture project (previously I’ve only been doing interior architecture) and somehow the transformation (renovation) is linking to many projects that I embrace. Either seen in real life or seen in books / digital. From Casa Wabi by Tadao Ando to the D. Judd Marfa project.
I’m also a very social person so I am often out and about meeting people. These days I am often accompanied by our dog Rimu (3.5 years / Australian Labradoodle) and our daughter Atlas Ria (1.5 years).
Sources of creative envy: Peter Zumthor, Peter Märkli, Donald Judd
The distraction you want to eliminate: I’d like to be on my phone less but these days it’s also a power tool in order to operate with communication, logistics of everyday, calendar, meetings, navigations etc.
