Born from boredom, shaped by creativity, and rooted in imperfection — this is the story of [kraak].

Fifteen years ago, [kraak] was born from a relentless love for creation — the kind of creation that doesn't wait for permission, the kind that leaps from a spark in the soul and lands in something real, tactile, and beautifully imperfect. At its heart is a restless, fiercely imaginative spirit — someone who cannot sit still, who sees opportunity in every crack, in every quiet corner, in every pause.

This is my story.

I grew up on a farm in Namibia, where electricity was a luxury and boredom was a constant companion — one that unknowingly sculpted my creativity. There were no video games or jungle gyms, just mud, stones, trees, scrap metal, and imagination. My sister and I baked ‘modderkoekies’ during sleepy Sunday afternoons, covered head-to-toe in mud while our parents rested inside. It was in those moments — unstructured, raw, and real — that I learned the art of creating from nothing.

You see, the name [kraak] comes from the Afrikaans word for “crack.” Like a crack in the wall, it’s a perfect imperfection — unrepeatable, authentic, honest. A crack can be mimicked, but never its cause. At [kraak], we create with that in mind — feeding off you, the cause, to shape something whole in its flawed beauty.

What began as a husband-and-wife duo has since grown into a creative community of dreamers and makers, each contributing their unique spark to the collective fire. We’re no longer just event designers; we are storytellers, artists, experience curators. Every project is a narrative — sometimes wild, sometimes refined — but always deeply personal.

I dream big, but the process is organic, fluid. I rarely know exactly where an idea will take me, but I follow it anyway, like a child trailing a stream down the mountain. I live by the words of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:

"A pile of rocks ceases to be a rock when somebody contemplates it with the idea of a cathedral in mind."

Then came kruijd — a return to roots, to simplicity, to barefoot luxury. It emerged during a moment of realization: I wasn’t bored anymore, and that meant I wasn’t creating like I used to. Watching my two boys play in the sand brought it all back — the value of stillness, the beauty of boredom, the sacred art of slowing down.

So I moved fast for a while… just so I could move slow again.

At kruijd, I invite you to slow down with us. Bake ‘modderkoekies’, walk barefoot, nap in the shade, swim in the dam or under a waterfall. Allow yourself to play with mud, with stones, with time. Be still long enough to hear your imagination whisper again.

This isn’t just about design or aesthetics. It’s about feeling something. It’s about seeing the world not as it is, but as it could be — through the lens of play, wonder, and wild imperfection.

We’re not just building things.
We’re building cathedrals from cracks.

This story — my story — is not just a personal journey. It’s a framework for rethinking how we engage with the world of hospitality and design. It’s an invitation to turn conversations into collaborations and to see every project not as a transaction, but as a shared experience.

In a world where everything is often curated to perfection, kraak and kruijd celebrate the opposite — the curated imperfection, the emotional texture of a space, the soulful imprint of hands that made something with meaning. We are here to entertain not just the eye, but the imagination. We design not only for comfort, but for memory, for wonder, for the child in all of us who once played in the mud and believed it was cake.

Whether it’s through immersive event experiences or the tactile simplicity of slow, soulful retreats, our work aims to blur the lines between guest and host, between art and function, between past and future. It’s about storytelling — not with words alone, but with spaces, textures, light, sound, and feeling.

In the hospitality and design world, I believe we’re here to do more than impress.
We’re here to move people.
To make them feel something real.
To give them a crack through which the light can enter.

Let’s keep the conversation going. Let’s keep building something beautiful — not despite the imperfections, but because of them.

FOUNDER

@hannes_van_kraak