STUDIO

Profile

OHLAB is an office devoted to urban analysis and cultural research of contemporary society through design, architectural practice and urban strategy.

OHLAB has been nominated twice for the Mies van der Rohe Award, has been awarded by the Architecture Masterprize as one of the Architecture Firm Of The Year of 2022 and Interior Design Firm of the Year of 2019, selected as one of the 6 best emerging interior design studios by Dezeen and has been previously described by the Chicago Atheneum as “one of Europe’s most important emerging architects”. In 2019 opened Can Bordoy a transformation of a historical building into a hotel, which received international attention and more than 20 design awards.

OHLAB is currently working in the design of different hospitality, residential and retail projects in Spain and abroad, including the already awarded Passivhaus Casa Xaloc, a Plus Energy building in Mallorca. In 2022, OHLAB has finished several projects, including one of the tallest Passivhaus residential buildings in Spain (Nearly Zero Energy Building), and a 3,000 m2 residential project in a historical building from the XIII century in the old town of Palma. The office, directed by Paloma Hernaiz and Jaime Oliver, was originally established in Shanghai in 2007, moved to Madrid and currently its main office is in Palma de Mallorca where a team of 18 architects, interior designers and building engineers are working in a variety of projects.

OHLAB has received numerous awards for their work on design and sustainability, such as Dezeen, Conde Nast, Monocle, INSIDE, AHEAD and Architecture Masterprize, Surface, to the best hotel of the year (Can Bordoy), Best House of the Year Award in 2017 from Architectural Record, New York; Best Eco Design Award in 2017 from IED, Madrid; 3 Awards at the World Architecture Festival 2016, Berlin; Best Energy Efficiency Project Award from NAN in 2016; Best of the Year Awards, New York in 2016, 2014 and 2012, WIN Awards, London, in 2016, 2014 and 2012; Great Indoors Awards 2013 among many others. The office was also nominated for the Mies Van der Rohe Awards in 2021 and 2011.

Their work has been published extensively in specialized and general media such as Monocle, Wallpaper, Architectural Record, Interior Design, Arquitectura Viva, FRAME, AD, Diseño Interior, Domus, Vogue, Elle, El País, La Vanguardia, The New York Times o Financial Times among others.

Directors

Paloma Hernaiz is an architect by the ETSAM in Madrid and postgraduate with a Master of Architecture at Columbia University in New York. After her studies she did research work in the historical archives of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in London. Before establishing his office in Madrid she acquired 9 years of professional experience in architectural offices in different countries where she had the opportunity to carry out projects of very different scales and requirements. In Madrid he collaborated with Estudio Lamela / Richard Rogers Partnership; in New York she worked with the office G-tects where he collaborated with the office of Frank O. Gehry; in China she worked in Shanghai and Beijing with the office OMA / Rem Koolhaas.

Jaime Oliver is an architect by the ETSAB in Barcelona, where he graduated with an excellent grade in his Final Project. He spent a year at the Institut Supérieur d’Architecture de la Communauté Française in Brussels with an Erasmus scholarship and graduated with a Master of Architecture from Columbia University in New York after obtaining a scholarship from “la Caixa”. Before establishing his office in Madrid, he acquired 9 years of professional experience in architectural offices in different countries where he had the opportunity to carry out projects of very different scales and requirements. In New York, he collaborated with DNA and Hariri & Hariri; in China he worked in Shanghai and in Beijing with OMA / Rem Koolhaas. He is currently working on his doctoral thesis at the ETSAB in Barcelona (thesis approved).

Paloma Hernaiz and Jaime Oliver have been project teachers in the Master in Design for Work, Retail and Learning environments at IE School of Architecture in London and Madrid, they have been project teachers and coordinators at IED Madrid from 2011 to 2014, they were teachers in the Master of “La Gran Escala” at UPC in Barcelona and invited critics in different juries at Princeton and Columbia Universities in New York and at the European University in Madrid. They have given lectures on their work in different centers such as the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, the European University of Madrid or the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.