Built by builders.
We started with one excavator, a borrowed crane and a promise to finish what we start. Thirty-eight years later that promise still runs every site we open.
We started with one excavator, a borrowed crane and a promise to finish what we start. Thirty-eight years later that promise still runs every site we open.
Meridian Tower · Level 42 · 03:12 AM pour
(01) Our story
From one excavator to 640 people.
Raw Structure was founded in 1987 by Hendrik Raaijmakers, a site foreman who was tired of watching good buildings get ruined by bad sequencing. The first job was a harbour warehouse in Rotterdam. It finished eleven days early.
Through the nineties we grew the way buildings grow — one floor at a time. Structural steel came in-house in 1996, civil works followed in 2004, and in 2013 we opened our first offices in New York and Oslo.
Today we are 640 engineers, foremen and trades working across three continents. We still hire people who can read a drawing and swing a hammer, and we still publish every safety statistic we record — good or bad.
We do not chase the biggest contracts. We chase the ones where precision matters: live hospitals, heritage shells, bridges over working rivers. The places where a shortcut is not an option.
(02) Milestones
Thirty-eight years, six turning points.
1987
1987
First excavator
One machine, four people and a harbour warehouse in Rotterdam.
1996
1996
Steel goes in-house
Our own detailing office and erection crews for high-rise frames.
2004
2004
Civil division
Bridges, utilities and marine works join the portfolio.
2013
2013
Three continents
Offices open in New York and Oslo; 200 people on payroll.
2019
2019
Digital twin standard
Every handover ships with a live BIM model of the finished asset.
2026
2026
1.2M safe hours
Zero lost-time incidents across all active sites.
(03) What we stand on
Four rules on every site board.
Nobody gets hurt
Safety is designed in, not bolted on. Every method statement is written with the crew who will use it.
Tolerance is respect
We measure twice and log everything. Millimetres matter when a building has to last a century.
Say it, then do it
Programme and price are promises. We publish both and we are measured against both.
Leave it better
Low-carbon concrete, reused formwork and zero-landfill targets on every project since 2021.
(04) Leadership
The people who sign the drawings.
Hendrik Raaijmakers
Founder & Chairman
Amara Okafor
Chief Executive Officer
Lukas Berg
Director of Engineering
Sofia Marín
Head of Safety
ISO 9001 Quality
ISO 9001 Quality
ISO 9001 Quality
ISO 14001 Environment
ISO 14001 Environment
ISO 14001 Environment
ISO 45001 Safety
ISO 45001 Safety
ISO 45001 Safety
VCA** Certified
VCA** Certified
VCA** Certified
BREEAM Outstanding
BREEAM Outstanding
BREEAM Outstanding
LEED Platinum Partner
LEED Platinum Partner
LEED Platinum Partner
Built by builders.
We started with one excavator, a borrowed crane and a promise to finish what we start. Thirty-eight years later that promise still runs every site we open.
We started with one excavator, a borrowed crane and a promise to finish what we start. Thirty-eight years later that promise still runs every site we open.
Meridian Tower · Level 42 · 03:12 AM pour
(01) Our story
From one excavator to 640 people.
Raw Structure was founded in 1987 by Hendrik Raaijmakers, a site foreman who was tired of watching good buildings get ruined by bad sequencing. The first job was a harbour warehouse in Rotterdam. It finished eleven days early.
Through the nineties we grew the way buildings grow — one floor at a time. Structural steel came in-house in 1996, civil works followed in 2004, and in 2013 we opened our first offices in New York and Oslo.
Today we are 640 engineers, foremen and trades working across three continents. We still hire people who can read a drawing and swing a hammer, and we still publish every safety statistic we record — good or bad.
We do not chase the biggest contracts. We chase the ones where precision matters: live hospitals, heritage shells, bridges over working rivers. The places where a shortcut is not an option.
(02) Milestones
Thirty-eight years, six turning points.
1987
1987
First excavator
One machine, four people and a harbour warehouse in Rotterdam.
1996
1996
Steel goes in-house
Our own detailing office and erection crews for high-rise frames.
2004
2004
Civil division
Bridges, utilities and marine works join the portfolio.
2013
2013
Three continents
Offices open in New York and Oslo; 200 people on payroll.
2019
2019
Digital twin standard
Every handover ships with a live BIM model of the finished asset.
2026
2026
1.2M safe hours
Zero lost-time incidents across all active sites.
(03) What we stand on
Four rules on every site board.
Nobody gets hurt
Safety is designed in, not bolted on. Every method statement is written with the crew who will use it.
Tolerance is respect
We measure twice and log everything. Millimetres matter when a building has to last a century.
Say it, then do it
Programme and price are promises. We publish both and we are measured against both.
Leave it better
Low-carbon concrete, reused formwork and zero-landfill targets on every project since 2021.
(04) Leadership
The people who sign the drawings.
Hendrik Raaijmakers
Founder & Chairman
Amara Okafor
Chief Executive Officer
Lukas Berg
Director of Engineering
Sofia Marín
Head of Safety
ISO 9001 Quality
ISO 9001 Quality
ISO 9001 Quality
ISO 14001 Environment
ISO 14001 Environment
ISO 14001 Environment
ISO 45001 Safety
ISO 45001 Safety
ISO 45001 Safety
VCA** Certified
VCA** Certified
VCA** Certified
BREEAM Outstanding
BREEAM Outstanding
BREEAM Outstanding
LEED Platinum Partner
LEED Platinum Partner
LEED Platinum Partner