Projects | Commissions | About
Much of my work begins with conversation.
If something here resonates, I’d love to talk—over coffee, on a walk, or just through a thoughtful exchange.
This website isn’t just a collection of work, it’s an invitation.
To collaborate. To reflect. To connect.
mail@fionacuypersstanienda.com
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Trained as an architect, Fiona uses photography as a method of research—an excuse to stay longer, to listen deeper, and to slow down. Her practice is grounded in long-term conversations and presence. Before ever taking a photograph, she spends hours—sometimes days—with the people she works with. The resulting images are shaped not just by light and composition, but by time, trust, and the unseen stories that unfold in between.
Her ongoing series My Favourite Space explores how people define “home” across cultural, political, and personal contexts—especially in the face of instability, migration, or constraint. In these portraits of private gardens, public parks, rooftops, and shared interiors, Fiona traces how spatial conditions reflect larger systems—economic, social, or political—and how architecture intersects with identity.
Since 2018, she has worked exclusively with the Hasselblad 500C/M on medium-format film. Her analogue process is slow and intentional: she spends extended time with each subject before taking a single photograph. She limits herself to just a few images per session, and never crops or digitally manipulates her work.
Fiona holds a Master of Architecture (M.Arch) and AA Diploma from the Architectural Association in London, with additional studies at ETH Zurich and the University of the Arts Berlin (UdK). In 2024, she was awarded a business grant from the German government to further develop her methodology, blending analogue photography with architectural thinking and human-centred research.
She is co-founder and co-director at Radical Research & Re-storying Agency (RRA), a collaborative practice rooted in architecture, photography, and storytelling. At RRA, she helps reimagine architectural narratives through interdisciplinary research, visual strategy, and slow, relational forms of storytelling.
Her work has been published in Architect’s Journal, Wallpaper, and REAL, and exhibited at the AA Bookshop in London and the British School at Rome.
AA Diploma / M.Arch, Architectural Association, London
Architecture, Berlin University of the Arts, Berlin
Architecture, ETH Zurich, Zurich
EXHIBITIONS
2024: Domestic Dialogues, Terrace Collective, London
2020: Reporting from Rome, AA Bookshop, London
2019: Portico, British School at Rome, Rome
2016: Lugo Land, Lugo
AWARDS & GRANTS
2024: Business Grant, German Government
2019: Nicholas Boas Travel Scholarship, Architectural Association
2019: AAF Travel Award, Architectural Association
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2024: “My Favourite Space”, Self-Published
2022: “As New Architecture Writers calls for 2022 applications, we celebrate alumnus Afterparti”, Wallpaper
2020: “Influences: Aoi Phillips and Fiona Cuypers-Stanienda’s ‘Permesso’”, Architects’ Journal
2020: “Who holds the power to shape our cities?”, Wallpaper
2019: “Summer and art at the BSR”, The British School at Rome
2018: “A Home Truth on Contemplation and Resistance”, REAL
2017: “2018: The Year According to: Jack Self”, Walker Art Center
2025: Guest Lecturer, Spatial & Interior Design, University of Kent, Canterbury
2025: Workshop Leader, Spatial & Interior Design, University of Kent, Canterbury
2025: Guest Critic, Spatial & Interior Design, University of Kent, Canterbury
2020: Guest Critic, Communication and Media Studies, Architectural Association, London
SELECTED CLIENTS
Afterparti
Atelier Aarohi Bakeri
KARTA Architecture
Kéré Architecture
Lightmile Runclub
Open Volume Studio
Skala Studio
Valter Scelsi