Dehli Grolimund, a Zurich-based practice founded in 2019 by Christian Dehli and Andrea Grolimund, is a multidisciplinary studio with a scholarly appetite, working across architecture, research, publishing and preservation. It’s also among the exciting emerging studios spotlighted in the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2026.
Who: Dehli Grolimund
Dehli, a Swiss-Norwegian architect, and Grolimund, a Swiss architect, both studied at ETH Zurich under Christian Kerez, having also worked at practices in Zurich, Basel and Tokyo during their studies. Dehli later joined Herzog & de Meuron, assisted Christian Kerez at ETH Zurich and taught at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, while Grolimund became part of Zurich practice BS+EMI, where she has been an associate since 2021.
Their practice is driven by curiosity, but also by a belief in architecture’s afterlife: how buildings are studied, redrawn, translated, repaired and kept in circulation. ‘We are motivated by the desire to learn something new every day – through travel, encounters, and research,’ they say. Books, archives, libraries, conversations and direct experience of buildings all feed into their work, with the duo often beginning projects ‘without a fixed budget or predefined outcome’, trusting intuition and uncertainty as part of the process.
The late Japanese architect Kazuo Shinohara remains a key influence, not only for the poetic geometry of his houses but for his independent-minded approach to domestic space. Dehli and Grolimund published Kazuo Shinohara: 3 Houses in 2019, a study of three of Shinohara’s houses with plans redrawn to a shared scale. They later edited the first English-language translation of Shinohara’s Residential Architecture.
What: Umbrella House
Their reconstruction of Shinohara’s Umbrella House shows the practice at its most forensic. Originally built in Nerima, Tokyo, in 1961, the 55 sq m timber house is one of the last remaining examples of Shinohara’s First Style: a small domestic world held beneath one roof, the ‘umbrella’ of its title. Its near-square footprint, just 7.50m by 7.50m, contains little more than the essentials, yet the house has the force of a manifesto.
Saved from demolition, Umbrella House was documented, measured, dismantled, repaired and relocated from Tokyo to the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany, between 2020 and 2022. As co-architects and architectural consultants, Dehli Grolimund oversaw the reconstruction with scholarly precision, from site positioning and the building application to materials, colours, documentation and possible future uses.
The plan remains compact but spatially generous: a bathroom, a main room and a tatami room, gathered beneath an umbrella-like timber roof rising to 4m. A bamboo screen divides living and dining areas, while fusuma sliding doors with gold-leaf paintings by Japanese painter Setsu Asakura separate the tatami room.
Why: Architects Directory 2026
When the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory was conceived in 2000, it was built as our bespoke international index of emerging architectural talent. Now in its 25th edition, our annual listing of promising practices from across the globe (now comprising over 500 alumni) champions the best and most promising young studios – it’s a snapshot of talent showcasing inspiring work from all corners of the Earth with an emphasis on the residential realm.
This year’s anniversary survey includes 30 young studios (one for each of the 30 years of Wallpaper*), from Australia, Bahrain, Benin, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Ecuador, Ghana, Greece, France, Ivory Coast, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, India, Morocco, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, the USA, and Vietnam. Welcome to the promise, ideas and exciting architecture of the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2026.