Florin and Axu met in 2021 at a makers’ event in Bucharest. Florin, an architect and a maker passionate about modular housing, had just presented an innovative project. Part of the audience, Axu – a maker himself – was a serial entrepreneur with a love for community-driven, nature-connected living.
Quickly realizing they shared the dream of creating a nature-immersed, active and sustainable community away from “the rat race“, they joined forces.
This partnership became Cătun — a modern modular construction system designed for people who want to build quickly and live slowly.
Florin Cobuz
Florin studied architecture but shifted to entrepreneurship over a decade ago. He founded Punkt Studio, an architecture studio, and The Plot, a printing studio that later became the Printing and Model-Making Workshops at the Ion Mincu University of Architecture. In 2013, he co-founded Tegmark, a 3D visualization company for architecture. In 2015, he launched Nod makerspace, a 2000 sqm creative hub that grew into an ecosystem with Mater (a materials library), Level-Up (a startup accelerator), and Nod Design Lab.
Since 2018, he has focused on product design, co-launching award-winning projects like Tika – the Modular Design Set and the BeYou Chair. In 2021, he co-founded Cătun, a startup for modular, sustainable homes.
Sorin (Axu) Axinte
Axu studied journalism in the ’90s and became a co-producer of the first extreme sports TV show in Romania. He co-founded his first business in 1997. In 2016 he got back to his childhood roots – building hardware. After a renewable energy tech project and a modular robotics startup, he co-founded Catun.
Since the ’90s, as he traveled through Europe, Africa and South-East Asia, Axu observed very different cultures and ways of living. As contrasting as they were at the surface, the lifestyles of the nature-immersed communities on all continents relied on a few principles which withstood the test of time. Regardless of their social status and material possessions, the most fulfilled people were always the ones willingly working together, in touch with nature.
