Atelier Papenfuss was founded by Ulrike and Andreas Papenfuss in 1990 in Weimar.

Today we have 19 staff specialising in industrial design, construction, communications design, media information technology, architecture, interior design, exhibition design, prototype construction, and economics. With this broad spectrum of specialist qualifications we are able to offer our clients a wide range of services.

In 2001 we acquired an old locksmithery in the centre of Weimar, which we redesigned according to our requirements. The three-storey building with offices on two floors, photographic studio and model-making workshop provides a functional and compact working enviroment suited for flexible teamwork and with plenty of space to develop all our projects.

We always start new assignments by scrutinising and challenging what we are asked to do – in the best interest of our clients. Is what they want that what they really need? In order to answer this question, we proceed in a methodical way. A prerequisite for the successful handling of a project is the project-specific composition of the team, based on specialist strengths. Each team member participates in the project from the beginning to the end, thus gaining interdisciplinary insights and an understanding of the context of their contribution. Interdisciplinary teamwork and our methodology provides the ideal framework to develop bespoke solutions for our clients.

We see ourselves as "translators" and "facilitators". Our task is to create multifaceted solutions in our core areas of expertise (product development, systemic communications, web & software development and interior design).

The aim of our work is to optimise products and processes and to make them clear and comprehensible, transparent and simple. We want to achieve high societal relevance with low total outlay. During the development process we investigate and analyse the whole context in which the product or system will be used.

We develop projects by proceeding from an abstract starting point along a methodical line in order to achieve a refined, specific outcome. Together with our client, we prepare a project outline, from which we deduce an abstract generalised objective for the project. On this basis we develop specific concepts and drafts that are alternatingly further expanded until the final result has been accomplished.