---
title: "openbureau"
description: "open and self-owned tools for architecture"
---

architecture runs on tools. the tools shape what gets thought, drawn, and built. most are proprietary: subscriptions that can be cancelled, file formats only their owners can read, work that disappears when a license lapses. in a profession that already runs on precarious labor, that's rent extraction.

free and open source software is the cleanest answer, but not the only one. what i'm after is ownership and openness. tools you own instead of rent. file formats anyone can read. data that doesn't sit behind a paywall. code as a commons when possible. when it isn't, at least open data.

openbureau is where i collect what i build along these lines. small tools, written for my own practice, released so other people can use or fork them.

beyond what i build, openbureau is also a service: i curate open-source software that carries no fixed costs and no lock-in, set it up, and support it, so a studio or small practice can run on tools it owns instead of subscriptions it rents.

**RAPPORT**\
2026

a studio management tool for small architecture offices. project management, time tracking, quotes and invoicing, bookkeeping, employee records, payroll, meeting minutes. all in one place instead of five subscriptions patched together. what exists is either too small (single-purpose apps that don't talk to each other) or too big (enterprise suites built for offices of a hundred people, with a budget to match). small practices end up paying for software designed for someone else and filling the gaps with spreadsheets. rapport is the tool i wanted to use myself. free software, self-hostable, no per-seat licensing. your data stays on your devices.

[repo](https://rapport.openbureau.ch)

**DOSSIER**\
2026

a rhino plugin for early-phase architectural design. walls, doors, windows, slabs, stairs, levels, and a 2d drawing layer that feels like a 2d drawing layer. native rhino objects, no parallel database to sync. what exists is either expensive proprietary software, or full bim systems built for office-scale documentation phases that don't fit how you actually think during a sketch. open source bim tools live in blender or freecad and follow a 3d-first logic — useful, but not how you 2d draw a plan. students and small offices end up either paying, pirating, or working around in plain rhino. dossier is the tool i wanted to use myself during my master's and my own work. why rhino and not a fully open source cad? rhino sells perpetual licences you actually own instead of subscriptions you rent, and its file formats (3dm, opennurbs) and apis (rhinocommon, eto.forms) are well documented and readable outside the application. that's not free software, but it's a workable position on ownership and open data and where some architects already work. freecad or librecad would be more philosophically open, but adoption in architecture is marginal. dossier meets the discipline where it is. open data, established community, enough infrastructure to build on.

[repo](https://dossier.openbureau.ch)
