Research
Capital architecture is a discipline in formation. The CAI publishes the methodology, extends it, and puts it in the hands of the people who will stress-test it.
All CAI publications are free. CC BY-NC 4.0. No registration required.
WHY WE PUBLISH
The fastest way to build a new discipline is to publish the methodology openly and let practitioners break it.
Most proprietary financial methodologies are black boxes. They are licensed, not published. They are updated internally, not through academic scrutiny. They accumulate institutional knowledge without subjecting it to external challenge.
The CAI takes the opposite position. Working Paper 001 publishes the complete Capital Architecture Framework - every stage, every gate, every decision rule - under CC BY-NC 4.0. The Practitioner Manual publishes the working tooling. The Project Assessment Workbook publishes the scoring model.
This is deliberate. Capital architecture as a discipline can only advance through applied challenge. A practitioner in Frankfurt who applies the CAF to a renewable energy mandate and finds that Stage 3 QGR requirements need refinement for German regulatory conditions is doing more for the field than a decade of internally circulated revisions. We want that practitioner to publish their findings. We want the methodology to evolve under pressure.
The CAI research agenda is therefore a collective programme, not a private one.
PUBLICATIONS
What we have published.
CAF Working Paper 001
The Capital Architecture Framework: A Practitioner Methodology for Layered Capital Structure Design
Tobias Temmen · Capital Architecture Institute · March 2026
The foundational document for the Capital Architecture Framework. Establishes the theoretical basis, five formal propositions, and the full seven-stage lifecycle - from Mandate Readiness Assessment through Lifecycle Governance. Includes the quantitative gate requirements (QGR-3 and QGR-5), the Mobilisation Multiplier Model specification, the Minimum Concessionality Principle, and the Global North application framework.
JEL Codes: G23 · G24 · G28 · G32 · O16 · F34
Five formal propositions:
- Capital abundance is not the binding constraint on development finance. Structure is.
- The blended finance mechanism operates identically across geographies wherever the market failure logic holds.
- Capital architecture design is a systematic discipline with documentable stages, explicit decision rules, and auditable outputs.
- Mobilisation efficiency can be measured and optimised through the Mobilisation Multiplier Model.
- Replicability is a design property, not an emergent outcome.
Free · CC BY-NC 4.0
Citation format:
Temmen, T. (2026). The Capital Architecture Framework: A Practitioner Methodology for Layered Capital Structure Design. CAI Working Paper 001. Capital Architecture Institute. DOI: 10.5281/cai.caf.2026.v1
CAF Practitioner Manual v1.0
A Stage-by-Stage Working Tool for the Capital Architecture Framework
Tobias Temmen · Capital Architecture Institute · March 2026
80+ pages. Six parts: Foundation · Seven-Stage Lifecycle · Domain Applications · Quantitative Frameworks · Governance and Regulatory · Reference. Worked examples across energy transition, defense and dual-use, social infrastructure, and deep tech venture lending. Full QGR-3 and QGR-5 specifications. Stress calibration data. Regulatory mapping: SFDR 2.0 · AIFMD II · ELTIF 2.0.
Free · CC BY-NC 4.0
CAF Project Assessment Workbook v1.0
A Gate-by-Gate Evaluation Tool for Capital Architecture Mandates
Capital Architecture Institute · March 2026
Nine-tab Excel workbook. 87 live formulas. Zero manual calculation. Gate decisions formula-driven. Five-project comparison matrix. Architecture Readiness Band /101. Compatible with the full seven-stage CAF lifecycle.
Free · CC BY-NC 4.0
FORTHCOMING
What is being written
The following working papers are in development. Submission calls and co-authorship enquiries are open for each.
WP 002 - Energy Transition Capital Architecture
The CAF applied to European energy transition financing. German industrial decarbonisation case study. KfW and EIB first-loss instrument mapping. SFDR 2.0 taxonomy alignment. Estimated publication: Q3 2026.
WP 003 - Defense and Dual-Use Capital Architecture
The CAF applied to European defense technology scale-up financing. EDF and BMBF grant instrument analysis. AIFMD II LO-AIF compliant structure design. NATO spending trajectory and mapping catalytic capital supply. Estimated publication: Q4 2026.
WP 004 - Social Infrastructure Capital Architecture
The CAF applied to affordable housing and social care financing in the UK and the DACH region. Homes England and LGPS instrument analysis. Pension LP structural requirements for 20-year tenor exposure. Estimated publication: Q1 2027.
WP 005 - Deep Tech Venture Lending Architecture
The CAF applied to deep tech company financing across the pre-revenue and early-revenue stages. Revenue-based finance, venture debt, and asset-backed lending instrument comparison. Full lifecycle CAF application with QGR documentation. Estimated publication: Q1 2027.
WP 006 - Empirical Validation: CAF Applied to Closed Blended Finance Transactions
The first systematic empirical validation of the CAF against a dataset of closed blended finance transactions. Methodology: CAF scoring applied retrospectively to Convergence-database transactions. Research partner enquiries open.
OPEN QUESTIONS
The field needs answers to these questions. We are not the only people who should be working on them.
Working Paper 001 identifies five areas where empirical research is explicitly needed:
Empirical validation. The CAF has been designed through applied practice and formalised through the development of a structured methodology. It has not yet been systematically applied to a large dataset of closed transactions to test whether CAF-compliant structures demonstrably outperform non-compliant ones on mobilisation, loss rates, and replicability. This is the most important piece of empirical work the field needs.
Cross-jurisdictional regulatory mapping. The CAF regulatory appendix covers SFDR 2.0, AIFMD II, and ELTIF 2.0 as primary instruments. Comprehensive mapping of US (Reg D / Reg S), Singapore (MAS), and UAE (ADGM / DIFC) regulatory environments for CAF-compliant structures has not yet been completed.
MMM calibration across transaction types. The Mobilisation Multiplier Model provides illustrative benchmarks by domain. Systematic calibration against a large transaction dataset - separating genuine mobilisation from refinancing effects - would substantially increase the model’s predictive utility.
Replication Readiness Score validation. The RRS /20 scoring system is theoretically grounded but has not been validated against a comparative sample. Do structures scoring >16 on the RRS demonstrably replicate at higher rates? This is testable.
Global South / Global North comparative analysis. The structural equivalence proposition is central to the CAF’s theoretical basis. Systematic comparative analysis across matched mandate types in developed and developing market contexts would either validate or challenge the proposition.
If you are working on any of these questions, the CAI wants to hear from you.
LICENSE AND CITATION
All CAI research is published under CC BY-NC 4.0.
What this means:
- Free to read and download. No paywall.
- Free to cite in academic and professional publications.
- Free to teach in non-commercial educational settings.
- Free to apply in non-commercial practitioner contexts - DFI teams, government finance officials, academic researchers, NGO practitioners.
- Commercial licensing available for institutional deployment in fee-generating structuring mandates.
Preferred citation format:
Temmen, T. (2026). [Title]. CAI Working Paper [Number]. Capital Architecture Institute. DOI: [DOI]
Indexing: CAI working papers are submitted to SSRN and Zenodo. DOI registration via Zenodo for permanent citation stability.
The methodology is published. The research agenda is open.
Capital Architecture Institute · wait, what. · Zurich
capital-architecture.institute · cai@wait-what.co
All CAI publications CC BY-NC 4.0 · Free for non-commercial use