Initially he worked as an assistant to the county architect of Turku, Georg Theodor Chiewitz, and later studied at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm.

Although he applied for a job at the government agency responsible for supervising building activity he was never accepted and worked his whole life as an independent, privately operating architect.

These were often from the upper middle class, and many times concerned large buildings in central Helsinki (such as Hotel Kämp, 1886).

He continued to be active but on a smaller scale, with less prestigious commissions and together with a partner, the engineer Robert Huber.

[3] Apart from his work as an independent designer of buildings, Höijer was influential in so far as he managed to create a successful business model and organise his architectural firm in a way that inspired many other architects.