EFFEKT expands its partner group with two new partners, architect MAA Tina Lund Højgaard and architect MAA Toni Rubio Soler. Both have contributed to shaping the firm's development and profile through their many years of experience with the company, both through projects and leadership culture.
"It is a great pleasure to invite Tina and Toni into the ownership group. Both of them started with us as fresh graduates almost 14 years ago and have been a part of the firm's journey ever since. Each of them has contributed in their own way to shaping our design culture through projects they've left their mark on, as well as through their ability to lead and inspire employees and clients. In that sense, they already have a significant ownership of our profile, culture, and operations, which we are now formalizing," says co-founder and partner Tue Hesselberg Foged.
The expansion of the partner group follows the company's organic growth over the past two decades, evolving from a small startup in the 2000s to a medium-sized interdisciplinary consulting firm with projects in architecture, planning, landscape, and R&D, delivering projects to clients worldwide.
Capacity to address today's most pressing issues
"We have always seen EFFEKT as a creative collective of dedicated architects, urban planners, and landscape architects, and it is a natural next step to expand the ownership and partnership with two individuals who have been with us every step of the way," says co-founder and partner Sinus Lynge. "However, the expansion is also a consolidation of our core business, aimed at ensuring that we have greater execution power for what is our most significant project: building a company prepared to address the most pressing issues facing the world. We need to develop, design, and implement solutions for the climate and biodiversity crisis, with landscapes, buildings, and cities that promote greater health, well-being, and quality of life with limited resources," Lynge continues.
This mission can only be achieved through interdisciplinary collaboration, which is why, according to the two founding partners, the company now more than ever needs to expand its ownership group to increase its capacity to develop and drive innovative, research-driven, and complex projects with high design quality, paving the way for the green transition.
Prominent design talents and culture bearers within the studio
Tina Lund Højgaard has been one of EFFEKT's core employees in building and planning projects since 2009, with a series of award-winning and prize-winning projects and competitions to her name. During her time at EFFEKT, she has particularly left her mark on residential and cultural projects, such as Living Places Copenhagen in Jernbanebyen, which garnered massive national and international attention during the UNESCO World Capital of Architecture Year 2023 and the UIA World Congress, and the green and visionary transformation of Frederiksberg Hospital, set to close at the end of 2026.
"I started as a recent graduate at EFFEKT and have grown and developed over the last 14 years alongside the company, from when we were just a handful of people in the office to now, with over 50 dedicated employees. EFFEKT is characterized by a unique culture that I hold in high regard, shaped both by the people who work here and the diversity of tasks, from villas to urban planning, and a holistic approach to projects. I look forward to laying the foundation for the next phase of the company's development," says Højgaard.
Architect Toni Rubio Soler has been a driving force in the sketching and project development of many of the studio's high-profile projects since 2009, including the recently opened SIMAC in Svendborg and the award-winning treetop tower at Camp Adventure in Gisselfeld Kloster's forest, which has been included in the Danish Architecture Center's first permanent exhibition.
"It has been a gift, both in my professional and personal life, to be part of the journey that began at EFFEKT 14 years ago. I look forward to continuing to work with an amazing team and inspiring clients and partners on a wide range of diverse projects. We face complex global challenges, from climate change to economic and social crises, which require us to expand our knowledge and develop our role as architects. We need to take even greater responsibility for delivering unique and generous projects through precise designs and engaging processes," says Soler.
Innovative collaborations for the green transition
The studio's ambitions in the green transition have already led to several innovative collaborations with ambitious clients, partners, and other industry players who want to lead the way.
A good example is the collaboration with the VELUX Group and Artelia on Living Places Copenhagen. The exhibition in Jernbanebyen demonstrates how we can build more sustainable homes with a carbon footprint three times lower than the Danish standard and first-class indoor climate.
Recently, 'The Doughnut for Urban Development: A Manual' was launched, edited by Dani Hill-Hansen from EFFEKT and Kasper Guldager Jensen, co-founder of Home.Earth, based on extensive research. It serves as a practical tool for guiding the construction industry toward a socially, planetary, and economically sustainable way of developing our cities, inspired by the well-known economist Kate Raworth. This marks the first time the principles from her book 'Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist' have been applied to a specific industry.
Currently the Reduction Roadmap trio, EFFEKT, CEBRA, and Artelia, are rolling out a campaign to mobilize the Danish construction industry to support political emissions requirements that align with climate science by 2025, so the entire construction industry will start building within the Paris Agreement.