Rainer Thum Architects is a Houston-based practice founded in 2011 by Claude Johnson. We are small on purpose, and we intend to stay that way.
Claude Johnson was born in Houston and spent his teenage summers in central Germany, where his uncle ran a small carpentry shop outside Frankfurt. He studied architecture at Rice University, then spent four years in the office of Rainer Thum, a German architect known for quiet, well-detailed houses in the Hessen countryside.
In 2011 he returned to Texas, kept the name of the mentor who had shaped his eye, and opened the practice on Maximos Drive in Alief. Fourteen years later we are still there, in the same converted warehouse, with the same intention: to make a small number of houses very well.
Every design begins with a full day on the lot. Light, wind, drainage and the neighbors matter more than any Pinterest board.
We prefer brick that reads as brick and wood that reads as wood. Finishes are chosen for how they age, not how they photograph.
We take four or five projects a year. Claude personally signs every drawing that leaves the studio.
Design Merit Award — Bayou Terrace, 2024
Featured project — Maple Cross House, 2024
Home of the Year finalist, 2023
Renovation feature — Linden Street, 2022
The first conversation is free, and it usually tells both of us everything we need to know.
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