urban design
By urban design ‒ unlike urbanism and architecture ‒ we conceive the discipline designing spaces and public areas which define the urban fabrics ‒ such as city squares, streets, parks and other elements that circumscribe the environmental character of a city.
a map of hutopolis
A Map of Hutopolis contains the result of a research program about the urban development in China. The book envisions in a map solutions to the problems provoked by the radical development going on in the biggest country in Asia.
self-fab house
This publication features a selection of experimental projects about self-fabrication, with articles written by Vicent Guallart, Lucas Capelli and Willy Müller among others.
boundaries #3
Boundaries is an Italian independent journal entirely devoted to sustainable architecture and to cooperation projects.
mock-ups
We employ mock-ups to assess, in real scale, the performance of specific architectural features and carry out design reviews.
physical models
Physical models are copies to scale of structures or buildings ‒ with the aim to study design features, analyse a building or space within its context, and convey conceptual ideas.
contemporary city limit
Possibly the first idea of a limit in the historic city was defined by its own walls, which were systematically exceeded and rebuilt to maintain a defensive system. When traditional space evolves and becomes overgrown, urbanism emerges as a discipline, the city is transformed and its limit transforms with it. The increase in population and […]
next stop: hutopolis
Beijing Design Week is scheduled to be an annual event composed of several sections: a design forum, design exhibitions, workshops, a guest city program, design hops and an annual design award. ‘Next stop: Hutopolis’ is a retrospective on the urban condition of Beijing and specifically its Hutongs.
lecture at the Dashilan design hop
Giannantonio Bongiorno, curator of the exhibition ‘Next stop: Hutopolis‘, presented together with Luis Aguirre Manso the contents of the research that will start next fall about the Chinese urban conditions.
master planning
A master plan is a document detailing the technical framework within which a long-term intervention is to be developed.
wiki architecture
Architecture is nearly always the solution of a complex problem, an equation with many variables and which can be resolved in more than one way. It needs to address the programme, the site conditions, be formally expressed and have technical solutions that allow building it, but it must also have an intention or contain an […]
E9 forum in Santiago de Compostela
Lynn McMahon participated in the European Forum in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, which discussed the findings of Europan 9. The prize-winning project ‘Interactive Flexibility’ was exhibited at the Forum. This proposal for the development of Slatina Square in Opatija, Croatia, was included in the ‘Public and Private Spaces’ discussion.
lecture at the Iterate workshop
Last February 7th AQSO participated in the ‘Iterate’ workshop in Beijing with a lecture about the changing conditions of the Chinese cities and the progress of the ongoing research program ‘Hutopolis’.
statutory approvals
We offer consultation and management services for statutory approval applications associated with the project.
design workshop
Design workshops actively involve our clients in the creative process behind the design development. Accordingly, the workshop typically leads to a collective analysis and exploration of the design options developed by our team.
AQSO launches urban research Hutopolis
“Hutopolis” is a research program that aims to investigate new boundaries for the urban development in China. The study intends to re-use and enhance the existing urban framework and networks as a key idea to generate a new evolution of the city. AQSO organises an exhibition curated by Giannantonio Bongiorno and Luis Aguirre, with the […]
transformations
Transformations, a dialogue about the evolving city is the title of a documentary recently presented by AQSO at the 2013 Beijing Design Week. The movie is conceived as the conclusive chapter of the Hutopolis reseach program launched in 2011 for studying the urban changes on Chinese cities.
from policies to design
Modern urbanism involves several disciplines beyond architecture and sociology. Often the rules guiding urban development are established taking into account economic and political factors. In a complex scenario where the future of urban areas is more difficult to predict, how policymakers can take into account public participation?
learning from Dashilar
Organized by ‘Beijing Design Week’, Dashila(b) and Capital M, the event included speakers such Kenya Hara, designer from Nippon Design Center and director of design for MUJI, Fang Zhenning, curator of the Chinese pavilion of the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale, Liang Jingyu, architect from Approach Architecture, Giannantonio Bongiorno, curator of Hutopolis and Luis Aguirre from […]
designing with big data
Data is almost inclusive in everything that we do. Statistics show that 90% of it alone came from the last years. Climate sensors, credit swiping, social media updates, emails, digital portfolios, online transactions, actuated louvres and GPS location trackers – from physical to virtual world, we generate information.
the people’s urbanism
Last Saturday 22th took place in Hong Kong the presentation and discussion entitled ‘The People´s Urbanism’, an event organized by AP+E about bottom up approaches part of the last edition of the Hong Kong/Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture (UABB).
lecture at the Global Pioneer design forum
AQSO was invited to participate at the Global Pioneer Design forum organised by the Galaxy arts centre and 5cats editors in Shenzhen, China, last May 26.
E9 ESP
Spanish edition of the 9th Europan competition catalogue where the projects done by the Spanish teams were featured.
city visions
City Visions is an exhibition that collects one year of research, experiments and events organized in China and Europe by the Hutopolis research program. Soft and physical urban planning strategies, visions and ideas have been developed taking Beijing as a case study.
Harvest Home awarded by the IaaC
The self-sufficient house Harvest Home has been given an award in the ‘2nd Advanced Architecture Contest’, an international competition organized by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia.
old is new at Today Art Museum
On the occasion of the the 70th Anniversary of John Lennon’s Birth, Beijing-based Today art museum organized last October 16th an outdoor event including multimedia video projections, poetry readings, music performances and discussions under the name “old is new“.
urbanization process in China
It is not easy to see the sky in Beijing. Sometimes because of the storms, sometimes because of the fog and most of the times because of the tangible pollution surrounding the city the atmosphere becomes a ghostly mass in which the buildings are merely glimpsed. At night the stars cannot be seen, only flashing […]
architects at work
The second edition of the [email protected] festival, an event showcasing architecture and industry-related products with a special focus on innovation and education, took place in Beijing last December 5th and 6th. AQSO participated both at the ‘Spanish design in China’ seminar and the conference ‘Hutong to Hutopolis’.