AQSO is a dynamic international practice that addresses the architectural challenges that call for innovation through the use of technology, craftsmanship and a fresh approach to solution-finding.
Our team consists of independently minded and culturally diverse architects and designers that have moved around the world, helping clients materialise their ambitions in a variety of regulatory environments.
Founded by the Spanish architect Luis Aguirre in 2008, the studio opened its first office in China, which was in the midst of a profound cultural, social and technological change. It was exotic, intriguing and hugely exciting as a fertile ground for architectural exploration. It was here that our background of the rational and minimalist design was given space to evolve, and the possibility for experimentation in architecture was explored. We took our first steps into the arena of design consultancy, and we established ourselves in this nascent field, allowing conceptual development to become a mainstay of their practice.
The competence of working remotely with collaborators across the globe has instilled an ethos of contemporary co-working to AQSO that transcends international borders, allowing the practice to be led by the work itself, rather than being limited by the constraints of one particular region or area.
The studio’s broad-stroke thinking has seen them work across a range of projects which require collective participation, leadership and conceptual idea generation. From developing masterplans to conducting strategic urban studies, the studio has acquired a high level of expertise in the design and realisation of unusual projects and large-scale city planning.
This commitment to finding innovative design solutions, and empower communities to be part of them, lead the practice also to organise interdisciplinary research projects such as the Hutopolis programme, involving universities in Europe and Asia into the realm of new models of urbanisation.
Besides design consultancy, the practice has a portfolio of more detailed, small scale work, where our artistic thinking blends with our Spanish background in engineering, materials and making. On those boutique interiors and high-end residential jobs is where the practice conveys their pragmatic approach into affordable and buildable work.
Our mission is guided by a meticulous combination of creativity and technical knowledge. The practice’s architectural style eschews definition because of the individual, solution-based approach that we take towards every project. Functionality, strategic thinking and sustainability are at the heart of our work, delivered by a collection of curious, passionate design professionals with an appetite for learning and progressing their craft.
