Profile | UseCollective

UseCollective is a Copenhagen-based multidisciplinary design studio working across urban design, architecture, interiors, furniture and graphic identity.

Founded through the meeting of different disciplines - architecture, product design, and digital media / the studio operates through the idea of use.

use as function / as experience / as responsibility / as transformation

The name UseCollective reflects both this user-focused philosophy and the studio’s belief in collaboration as an essential part of the design process.

We believe architecture is more than performance metrics, regulations, and efficiency models. While sustainability, resource awareness, and environmental responsibility are essential, the spaces we build must also carry meaning, atmosphere, and emotional value.

Too often, contemporary building culture reduces architecture to numbers alone, square meters, CO₂ calculations, optimization. In the process, we risk forgetting who we are designing for.

At UseCollective, we believe the future of architecture depends on reconnecting responsibility with human experience. Seeking balance between performance and poetry, between technical necessity and spatial generosity, creating spaces that are not only efficient, but meaningful to live in.

a building is not only a calculation / a city is not only a strategy /

space is ultimately measured by how it is lived, remembered, and shared

We believe architecture is not created in isolation, but through dialogue between people, materials, context, economy, technology, and environment. Design becomes a collective process of negotiation and collaboration between users, clients, engineers, craftsmen, consultants, and the many voices involved in shaping space.

Moving between scales and disciplines, always with the same intention:

solutions centered around human experience.

At the core of our work is the belief that sustainability is not an aesthetic layer, but a way of thinking.

To use also means: to reuse, to transform, to adapt, to extend the life of existing structures and materials, to build consciously and responsibly

We are interested in responding to context; socially, materially, environmentally, and culturally, while remaining open to experimentation, emerging technologies, and new ways of building.

For us, the challenge is not choosing between performance and spatial quality, but finding new ways for them to coexist / creating architecture that is responsible, contextual, and sustainable, while still generous, inspiring, and deeply human.

We see our work as part of the solution

to improve / to connect / to contribute / to use collectively

Francisco Villeda, architect and founder of UseCollective, was born in Mexico City and is now based in Copenhagen. He has more than 20 years of international experience across architecture, urban design, research, and education.

With an academic background spanning Mexico City, Barcelona, and Copenhagen, his formation combines architecture, advanced design research, and technological experimentation. Exposure to diverse cultural, urban, and methodological approaches has shaped a design process that moves between strategic thinking, digital innovation, material awareness, and contextual architecture.

His professional experience includes leading and contributing to projects across Europe and internationally, ranging from masterplans, educational buildings, offices, hotels, housing, and public infrastructure to international competitions and strategic urban developments. Several of these projects have won international competitions and have been recognized through architectural awards and nominations.

Early in his career, his role as an Associate Architect at JDS Architects led to the coordination of large international teams and complex projects, shaping a collaborative and strategically driven approach to architecture. Because of this early experience, he later held key roles at Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, Tredje Natur, and Christensen & Co Architects, working across concept development, design leadership, project management, and multidisciplinary coordination.

Alongside practice, teaching and research remain an important part of his work. He currently teaches and lectures, and is a recurrent guest critic at Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia,The Royal Danish Academy – School of Architecture, DIS Institute of study abroad in Copenhagen, and Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.

This combination of international practice, academic involvement, experimentation, and collaborative design leadership continues to shape the direction of UseCollective today.