Melanie Raines harnesses the power of space to intimately and measurably affect daily life. Trained as an architect, she has earned a reputation for fearless and spirited design, honed by the world of boutique hotels and restaurants and refined by over a decade of experience across Copenhagen, New York, Los Angeles, and Austin. Never adhering to an aesthetic, but instead calculating the synthesis of human senses, her work is at once polished, rebellious, and often described as “un-design”. Melanie’s integrated approach delivers experience-forward spaces that calibrate, embrace, and celebrate the lives that inhabit them.

Before starting her eponymous practice in 2018, Melanie fostered a foundation in intimate residential work under David Mann at MR Architecture & Decor (New York) and worked in hospitality design with Soho House & Co. (New York, L.A.), Bunkhouse Group (Austin), and New Waterloo (Austin). Each building process has been the laboratory for exploration, alongside inspiration drawn from dance, film, modern art, and many (many) visits to the pacific ocean.