CEBRA files 02
As the second volume in CEBRA’s monographic series, “CEBRA files 02” continues the chronological documentation of the practice, while marking a shift from simply presenting the work to actively reflecting on it, introduced through a preface by Peter Wilson. It expands the series with essays and written reflections, opening up the internal conversations, ideas, and architectural language that have developed within the studio over time.
“CEBRA files 02” builds directly on the first volume, but the premise has changed. Where the first book was about showing that the practice existed, this one is about stepping back and making sense of the work.
Since 2007, the "CEBRA files" series is conceived as more than a conventional portfolio. Inspired by the historical precedent and office favourite, Le Corbusier’s "Œuvre Complète", it reflects an ambition to systematically document and organise the practice’s work. Each volume contributes to a larger, cumulative body of work, where projects are recorded, structured, and preserved as part of an ongoing architectural archive.
With a growing number of realised projects and competitions won, the work presented here begins to read less as a collection and more as a body of work. The projects are still diverse, but when brought together, recurring ideas and approaches start to become visible.
A key addition in this volume is the introduction of essays and interviews. These include contributions from David Basulto, founder of ArchDaily, and architect Boris Brorman, expanding the reading of the work beyond the studio itself. Alongside the projects, the texts give space to reflection, internal discussions, and the development of a shared architectural language within the studio. Some of the ideas reach back to the early years, but here they are revisited, reorganised, and made explicit.
As noted by Peter Wilson, CEBRA’s work operates somewhere slightly off-centre – energetic, precise, and grounded in the everyday. The projects balance expressive form with a strong sense of how buildings are actually used, pointing to an architecture that is both ambitious and pragmatic.
Although the book looks back, it is not retrospective in the traditional sense. Many of the projects are still unfolding, and the publication captures a moment where experience begins to accumulate and feed forward into new work. In that sense, “CEBRA files 02” is less a conclusion than a checkpoint – a way of taking stock before moving on to the next chapter.
