Sophie Hamer

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Schweiz
Grimisuat
Sophie Hamer

Crafting spaces with a sense of stillness & connection to the landscape in Switzerland & New Zealand.

31/12/2025

Site visit near Adelaide, South Australia.
A lifetime ago at the beginning of the year, 2025.

Life often unfolds in unexpected ways. This year reminded us of our humanity, of our fragility, and of our desire to create and connect to the world.

In August, 2025 was splintered in two by the shock of my partner Bryn’s diagnosis with a serious, advanced early-onset cancer. How do you live with such news, with such uncertainty, with the intense energy and time that illness, treatment and care demand? How do you place the immensity of your personal situation in a world where so many places, lives and systems are falling apart? And how does running an architecture practice fit in and around this new reality?

We have tried to walk together as we always have - openly, curiously, generously. We have been deeply thankful for the support and grace offered to us by friends and family, clients and contractors, and I have had endless gratitude for my team - Emily and Sophie - who have stepped up and in for me, carrying projects forward with beautiful and thoughtful architectural work.

In the first half of the year, everything felt expansive: new architectural projects saw us travel to incredible sites in Australia, New Zealand and across Europe. These visits laid the groundwork for the growing studio, anchoring us through these difficult months, framing our ongoing investigations into unique natural environments, local construction methods and heritage craftwork.

Now, from the clear, white cold air of the Swiss Alps, the heat and salty ocean breeze of Southern Australian beaches feel far away. But the richness of these experiences remains forefront in my mind through everything. Architecture is my everyday but also my escape - I conjure up new buildings, consider different material compositions, and watch sunlight flood rooms in my dreams.

We don’t know what 2026 will bring, but we step into it with a sliver of hope, which, like the moon, waxes and wanes, but remains present. Even with uncertainty, and pain, and tears, life always promises to be rich, and full, and deeply beautiful.

21/08/2025

A lovely chance to reflect on my architectural journey so far with Catie for - from the big risks and the unexpected lessons to my reflective approach to design and life. Always thankful for the amazing people and experiences along the way.

Here’s to remaining curious and always challenging ourselves to live and work in a way that aligns with who we are, enriches the spaces around us and remains deeply connected to nature.

I get asked so often how I ended up in Switzerland - if you want the full back story, please have a listen!

🔗 in bio, or on Spotify, Apple podcast, etc

Profile photo credits to for

03/07/2025

Doha, April 2025

A summer heatwave, amid its lethargy and muddle, somehow always brings back bodily memories with surprising clarity.

This one from our afternoon walk seeking out the patterns of heat and shade on an 18 hour stopover in Doha en route between hemispheres earlier this year. The vastness and smallness of the world, and the way our memories interweave places, people and politics never ceases to intrigue me - the complicated simplicity of it all.

03/06/2025

Villa on Lago Maggiore - a restoration
Spring 2025

South of the Alps it was a wet spring, leaving the landscape lush and green. As the plants grew we spent the first part of the year working on the developed design vision for this beautiful property - from 3D walkthroughs to 2D documentation.

For me, every architectural project always maps against the seasons in its own way. Each design process steps through moments of intensity and quiet, winters of capturing what exists and storing these ideas away, before quietly strengthening and finally coming into full bloom and colour in the summer sun.

20/05/2025

Pavilion overlooking the ocean
New Zealand, April 2024

Between rain squalls, we captured this recently completed project sitting calmly in the lush green bush in a private coastal site in New Zealand.

Commissioned to create a pavilion for use as a private gym overlooking the ocean and set above an existing residence, we developed a rhythmic expressed structural system, creating five bays for occupation - two open air, and three protected from the elements. A long verandah spaces connects along the front of the five bays, creating a deep recess which shades the interior and allows the building to visually recess back into the bush line from the exterior.

Beautifully brought to life by

12/05/2025

After a few weeks in New Zealand and Australia, we’re back in Europe - with a little more travel and work to get through before everything slows down a little for the summer months.

In the next few weeks I’ll be in some of my favourite places - Barcelona, Girona and Paris. If you’d like to catch up over a coffee, visit a gallery or workshop a design concept together in any of these magic cities, I’d love to know.

29/04/2025

South Australia, April 2025

When a client takes you to an incredible landscape at the edge of the earth, lays out a compelling brief and has deep alignment and trust in your vision…

Opportunities like this are rare and require a certain perspective to spot. A complex project to get off the ground, but with strategy, patience and a great team on the ground I hope we can share more in the future.

31/03/2025

After a quiet winter at home in the Alps, over the coming months l’ll be travelling a lot - visiting projects underway, working on new collaborations and finding fresh inspiration.

Sharing my itinerary because l’d love to hear from you if you’d like to grab a coffee, explore a site, visit a gallery, or workshop a design opportunity together in any of these amazing parts of the world.

My time in New Zealand will be mainly in the north - Auckland, Coromandel, Tauranga and Taupo - but I’d happily be convinced to come further south.

Recommendations for anything I should do, see or experience also most welcome!

17/03/2025

Sophie & Sophie on site in Sant Julià de Vilatorta, Barcelona
February 2025

Mid-March and we are on the precipice of equinox - that time of year where the sunlit hours and darkness are momentarily equal, but everything else is changing quickly - temperatures rising, plants blooming, projects unfolding into their next phases.

Each season I reflect on the work I’m doing, the places I’m lucky enough to learn to know so deeply, and the people I get to journey with.

Having always been sceptical of the image of the single, egotistical architect, I struggled with using my name when starting my practice - but at the same time, I felt that the human connection, rather than a faceless brand, was so important in a continent where I had few personal connections.

As the years unfold the practice is still about those connections, thinking about architecture with a certain intimacy and personal touch. But with a range of exciting projects on the boards in Europe and New Zealand the practice has started, carefully, to expand beyond just me.

Donning hardhats on site with another Sophie H, another kiwi on this side of the globe, has been an absolute highlight of the year so far.

Looking forward to where the journey takes us next…and thankfully there’s need for name changes - just yet.
herald

14/01/2025

View from my desk between sketches, Valais, early winter 2024

Time in the mountains always feels slower - the crisp air, the immensity of the landscape and the quiet falling of snow allow us to exhale and reset. I’ve spent these past few weeks saying a slow goodbye to 2024 - a year that showed me more than any other how fleeting, and open, and beautiful life is.

Last year projects took me from Switzerland to Sydney and Auckland, Milan and Paris, Lisbon, Girona and Mallorca. In 2025 many of these projects - a mixture of new builds and significant renovations - will take shape on site, the possibilities of sketches becoming reality, the incredible properties taking on a new life.

I’m always humbled by the landscapes, projects and people I’m invited to work with - but never more so than seeing the grace, generosity and care afforded to me as I navigated the death of my father on the other side of the world at the end of July.

A man of the mountains and our lake, a man of quiet presence and carefully considered words, a man who took such delight in the world around him. And now, as I look up to the mountains between sketches, forever in my minds eye, swimming out towards a hazy sunlit horizon.

Wishing you all a 2025 full of grace and generosity, slowness and space, mountains and lakes.

Adresse

Grimisuat
1971

Telefon

+41762632028

Webseite

http://www.sophiehamer.com/

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