Building in Valencia: why geography still matters in a remote world

When people find out FJOM. Studio is based in Valencia, the assumption is sometimes that it's a concession — that the real work happens elsewhere and we're building here for lifestyle reasons.

That misses the point.

Place shapes work.

Valencia has a particular relationship with making things. There's a craft tradition — furniture, ceramics, textiles — that coexists with a young, technically ambitious design community. The light is different here. The relationship to time is different. These things are not decorative facts; they affect how you think.

Working in a place that has a strong material culture means being surrounded by people who take the physical seriously. That influences how we approach digital work — with a bias toward things that are well-made and built to last, not things that are impressive for a moment and disposable shortly after.

Practical advantages.

There's also a straightforward practical argument. Valencia is well-connected to Madrid, Barcelona, and the rest of Europe. The cost of running a studio here is lower than in the major capitals, which means we can take on projects we find genuinely interesting rather than purely commercially driven ones.

The time zone works for European clients and, in the morning hours, for American ones. The infrastructure — fibre internet, international flights, good coffee — is genuinely world-class.

Not local work.

We don't work exclusively with Valencia-based clients. Most of our clients are elsewhere in Spain or in other countries. Geography, for us, is about where we're rooted, not where we can reach.

Being from a place gives you a perspective. A specific one, with specific constraints and specific advantages. We'd rather build from that than from nowhere in particular.