After graduating from HEAD – Genève with a BA in Interior Architecture in 2015, Valentine Maeder worked for a year and a half at CCHE in Nyon. Having been passionate about lighting for a long time, she then decided to further her education in Stockholm, graduating from KTH-Stockholm with an MA in Architectural Lighting Design in 2018. Back in Switzerland, she worked for more than two years at Aebischer&Bovigny, an office that specialises in lighting.
In 2019, in collaboration with Manon Portera, she set up apropå, a Geneva-based interior architecture studio that deals with material and light through a sustainable approach. Maeder has also been teaching lighting at HEAD – Genève since 2020 and in 2022, she joined the teaching staff for the MA programme, where she teaches circularity with Manon Portera.