Mascha Veech-Kosmatschof – Managing Partner and Principal Architect
Mascha Veech-Kosmatschof is the Managing Partner and Principal Architect of Veech x Veech. She has a direct role in the design and execution of the studio’s projects, working closely with an international client list and a talented internal design team to create innovative solutions, pushing the boundaries of the design brief, for schemes at any scale.
Born in Moscow, Russia, into a family of avant-garde artists (Vadim Kosmatschof and Elena Koneff), Mascha spent her formative years in the capital, where she was strongly influenced by Moscow’s cultural scene. After emigrating to Austria in 1979, she studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna under Austrian architect Wilhelm Holzbauer and subsequently studied at the Architectural Association in London under Jan Kaplicky, Ron Herron and Peter Rice, before completing her diploma in London in 1991 under Zaha Hadid. In 1993, she and Stuart A. Veech founded Veech Media Architecture as a multi-disciplinary studio bringing together architecture, broadcast media and design disciplines. In 2014 the company was renamed Veech x Veech to better reflect the breadth of work undertaken by the practice.
Alongside Mascha’s professional work, she has an established academic career including the position, from 2001 – 2016, of assistant professor at the Institute of Architectural Design of the University of Applied Arts Vienna, teaching alongside Zaha Hadid. Her research here has focused on complex urban geometries, digital prototyping and parametric design. In addition to her award-winning architectural projects and academic work, Mascha was the co-ordinating editor of the book Total Fluidity: Studio Zaha Hadid, Projects 2000 – 2010, and more recently the publication Fluid Totality. She has also curated exhibitions at the Museum of Architecture (MUAR) in Moscow and at the Künstlerhaus in Vienna.
Mascha is a registered member of the Austrian Chamber of Architects and Consulting Engineers in Vienna.
Stuart A. Veech – Managing Partner and Creative Director
Stuart A. Veech is the Managing Partner and Creative Director at Veech x Veech, and the creative force behind the studio’s innovative project designs. Working closely with all clients and leading highly specialised design teams, Stuart plays an intrinsic role in the design, development and realisation of all the practice’s projects. His visionary work in the field of media architecture over the past 20 years is indicative of his broad understanding of a wide range of design disciplines including architecture, design branding, and state-of-the-art technologies.
Born in Milwaukee, USA, Stuart grew up in Chicago and it was the city’s modernist architecture that gave him a strong impulse to study urban design. Beginning a diverse education at the University of Cincinnati, from which he holds a Bachelor’s degree in Urban Design, he went on to study at the Architectural Association in London and subsequently Industrial Design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. In 1988 he began an apprenticeship in the atelier of Russian sculptor Vadim Kosmatschof in Germany, forming a close collaboration with the artist, which still influences his work today.
In 1993 he founded Veech Media Architecture in Vienna together with Mascha Veech-Kosmatschof, and the studio’s work reflects his diverse knowledge of media design and architecture disciplines, resulting in a cinematic approach to their projects and a comprehensive understanding of broadcast media, lighting and material technologies. In 2014, the company was renamed Veech x Veech to better reflect the breadth of work undertaken by the practice.
Parallel to his professional work, Stuart has taught architectural design at the Vienna University of Technology, Graz University of Technology and the University of Innsbruck. From 2007 to 2009 he was Senior Research Fellow at the Royal College of Art in London and has lectured at numerous international universities and conferences on the unusual synthesis of design disciplines in his career.
