We design. You build. And the English-speaking client stops being lost on you.
ZEIA is a small Romanian-Swiss architecture studio, run by the two of us. We design interiors in English for people who moved to Berlin and Leipzig and want their flat to finally feel like theirs. We are not a building firm, and we do not intend to become one. We are looking for the other half: builders who do clean work and want the clients who pay for it.
Here is the situation as we see it. The expat households of Berlin and Leipzig renovate — they own good flats, they decide fast, and they budget properly. And a large share of them stall at the same wall: quotes they cannot read, site conversations they cannot follow, and the quiet fear of agreeing to something they did not understand. Many give up, or settle for less work than they wanted. That is business you never see, lost before it reaches you.
We sit exactly in that wall. The client works with us in English — brief, design, decisions, budget. You work with us in German — drawings, schedule, site. Both sides talk to people they fully understand, and the project stops leaking.
The sentence missing from your reviews
Before writing this page we studied tens of thousands of renovation and construction reviews across Germany and Romania. The pattern is remarkably stable. Good building firms are praised for the same things everywhere: reliable, on schedule, tidy site, fair price. What almost no review of a building firm says — even a firm with a hundred five-star ratings — is "the flat feels like ours now."
That sentence is missing because it is nobody's job. It is design work. It is also the sentence that turns a satisfied client into one who shows the flat to every dinner guest and sends you their friends. That is the part we add — and we would rather add it to your build than to anyone else's.
The deal, plainly
Two separate contracts: the client pays you for the build and us for the design. Your materials package, your suppliers, your margins — untouched. We do not take a share and we do not want one.
English-speaking households with real budgets, brought to your table with the language wall already handled. We speak German with you and English with them, in both directions, for the whole project.
By the time you price the job, the client has already decided everything with us — materials, fittings, built-ins, drawn and specified. Fewer mid-build changes, fewer unpaid site debates, a schedule that holds.
You deal with the two of us directly — the same two who drew the plans. Questions get answered the same day, and when the site finds something the drawings did not know, we redraw instead of arguing.
How a partnership starts
An hour, in person or online. We show each other work. You tell us how you like a site to run; we tell you how we draw. No papers, no commitment.
One real project — a flat we bring, or one you are quoting where the client wants design. Scope split in writing before anyone starts: what is ours, what is yours, who talks to whom.
We handle the client, the decisions and the drawings; you build. Site questions come to us in German and get answered fast — that is the promise we are most attached to.
Both names on the photographs, and the next English-speaking inquiry comes to you first. One good pilot becomes a standing arrangement — that is the whole plan.
Bring a project you are quoting now, or we bring the next English-speaking inquiry to you. Clear scope, separate contracts, both names on the result. If it does not fit, we part as colleagues.
The questions you are already asking
Do we need to speak English?
No. We handle everything client-facing in English and work with you in German. That is the point of the partnership — each side of the project talks to people it fully understands.
Do you take a share of the build contract?
No. Two separate contracts: the client pays you for the build and us for the design. Your materials package and your margins stay yours. Our incentive is a finished flat worth photographing — that is what brings us the next client.
Who owns the client relationship?
Your contract is yours, ours is ours, and neither of us goes around the other. We are two architects; we could not take over the building side even if we wanted to, and we do not want to. Happy to put all of it in writing on day one.
Are you actually architects?
Yes — the two of us, trained in Romania and Switzerland, designing homes and kindergartens for years. For work that requires a German architect's formal sign-off, we bring in a local licensed partner we trust and say so up front.
What kind of projects?
Residential interiors in Berlin and Leipzig — from a kitchen or bathroom to a whole flat. If a project is bigger than that, we will say so honestly and help find the right setup rather than improvise.
What if the site finds a problem with the drawings?
Then the drawings change, quickly, and the client hears it from us — not from you, mid-corridor, in a language they half follow. You should never be the one explaining design decisions you did not make.