STUDIO MAKS is an international office based in Rotterdam, founded by Marieke Kums in 2010. It aims to create new environments for all kinds of people, at every imaginable scale; from urban regions to cities, from buildings to art installations. The studio develops projects that engage culture and consciousness, nature and artificiality, surrealism and pragmatism. The work strives to go beyond conventional values and scales, as the range of people's awareness is ever expanding in an age where it's possible to find out about almost anything in the world in an instant. The studio has worked on projects in the Netherlands and abroad, such as in Germany, Hong Kong and Japan

Marieke Kums studied at the MIT in Boston and at Delft University of Technology from which she received her MSc Arch degree cum laude. Between 2003 and 2005 she worked with OMA / Rem Koolhaas and from 2006 to 2009 with SANAA / Kazuyo Sejima; Ruye Nishizawa in Tokyo. Marieke has been invited as a visiting lecturer and external critic at various architecture schools and institutions, such as Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam, the TU Delft, the Yokohama GSA, and Princeton.