DATUM
Studio7 people

Seven people, four grounds.

Datum works from two rooms, one in Tórshavn and one in Santiago, 12,045 km apart. Each of the seven below has stood on at least one of the four sites in all weathers.

Datum is fictional, and so is everything on this page: the people, their portraits (generated), the awards, the press and the roles. It is a portfolio piece by KOODOS.

Peoplesince 2011
  • A woman in her fifties with short grey hair and a dark wool jumper, in front of a concrete wall.

    Ingrid Solberg

    Founding partner · Tórshavn · since 2011

    Trained as a land surveyor before architecture. Leads every site visit in the first year of a project.

  • A man in his fifties with greying dark hair and a short beard, in a navy work jacket.

    Tomás Arriagada

    Founding partner · Santiago · since 2011

    Ran the concrete works on two Atacama observatories before Datum. Leads Llano Observatory.

  • A woman in her thirties with auburn hair tied back, wind in her hair, in a green shell jacket.

    Hanna Joensen

    Associate, survey · Tórshavn · since 2016

    Flew all 61 drone passes at Kalsoy in 35 knots of wind. Thirty-eight were usable.

  • A man in his forties with close-cropped hair and thin glasses, in a grey jumper over a collared shirt.

    Kwame Asante-Reid

    Structures lead · Tórshavn · since 2017

    Chartered structural engineer. Fixed the Kalsoy cantilever at 11 m after testing 9 m and 13 m.

  • A woman in her thirties with straight black shoulder-length hair, in a black high-neck top.

    Mei Lin Chau

    Computational design · Santiago · since 2020

    Keeps the seeded generators. Every contour line and screen cell starts from a site’s coordinates in her code.

  • A man in his sixties with white hair and a deeply lined face, in a faded blue fleece.

    Pierre Vautrin

    Alpine projects · Chamonix · since 2019

    A mountain guide for 30 years before he drew buildings. Walked the Arête ridge 14 times before the first line.

  • A woman around thirty in a slate-grey hijab and charcoal overshirt, in front of a concrete wall.

    Aisha Rahman

    Materials research · Tórshavn · since 2022

    Tests each material on site for a winter before it is specified. Ran the 14-month turf store at Kalsoy.

Offices12,045 km apart

Tórshavn

Faroe Islands · 62.0109° N 6.7716° W · seed 797822987

4 people · open since 2011

Santiago

Chile · 33.4489° S 70.6693° W · seed 162917711

2 people · open since 2014

Pierre Vautrin works from Chamonix, an hour and a half from the Arête trailhead.

Awardsall fictional
YearAwardProjectResult
2026North Atlantic Architecture PrizeKalsoy Cliff HouseWinner
2026High Ground Award, unbuiltLlano ObservatoryShortlisted
2025Polar Building MedalHalvorsen StationWinner
2025Mountain Refuge Prize, future projectsRefuge ArêteCommended
Pressall fictional
  • 2026The studio that surveys firstContour Quarterly, issue 41
  • 2026Tomás Arriagada on curing concrete at 5,060 m: 9 days, against 3 on the coastThin Air (podcast), episode 12
  • 2025Eleven metres past the edgeSite & Section
  • 2025A building that climbs a metre a yearThe Ground Review
Open roles3 positions
  • TórshavnProject architect, cold climatesFive years after qualifying, and content on a supply ship for three weeks at a time.
  • SantiagoSurvey technicianDrone and GNSS survey above 4,000 m. Spanish and English.
  • Either studioComputational design placementSix months on the seeded generators. TypeScript, and an interest in terrain.

None of these roles exist, because Datum does not. KOODOS does, and takes on website projects.

Talk to KOODOS