Fiona Cuypers-Stanienda (b. 1992) is a Swiss-German-American architectural designer and analog photographer based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Her work examines the emotional and political relationships between people and space—focusing on memory, belonging, ownership, and the quiet complexity of how we inhabit the built world.

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 project My Favourite Space spans continents and cultures, revealing how people define “home” 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 analog 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. This is both an artistic and ethical decision—one that allows for deep presence, trust, and attentiveness. Her practice offers a contemporary counterpoint to the speed of digital culture—inviting a new generation of spatial thinkers to reconnect with analog ways of seeing and understanding.

She 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 analog photography with architectural thinking and human-centered research.

Fiona is the founder and creative director of Terrace Collective, a platform for curating exhibitions that bridge architecture and art. She is also a partner at the Radical Research & Re-storying Agency (RRA), where she helps reimagine architectural narratives through interdisciplinary 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.

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If you’d like to connect—over a coffee, a conversation, or just to exchange ideas—I’d love to hear from you.
Let’s meet. Let’s talk.

mail@fionacuypersstanienda.com
@fiona.cuypers.stanienda