He Jianxiang and Jiang Ying, of O-office Architects, talk about their influences, projects, and the challenge of being an independent practice in China, where the architecture market is driven by public projects. O-office Architects is a Guangzhou-based practice established by He Jianxiang and Jiang Ying in 2007. Motivated to explore new architectural possibilities in Guangzhou, or Canton, the oldest international trading port of China, He and Jiang have been attempting to test their methodology in spatial intervention across different scales. Parallel to professional practice, they have persisted in using architectural design as a critical instrument for research on the spatial and economic reality, and struggle to maintain the balance the two. Since 2012, conservation of the urban memory and construction of new collectivist living forms in the rapid-developing Pearl River Delta area has been O-office’s main design focus. Projects of O-office range from urbanism, architecture, and landscape, to interior and furniture design. In 2015, O-office was recognized by Architectural Record as a Design Vanguard practice.
Constructing Practice traces the narratives of young firms from around the globe, featuring the participants of a Columbia GSAPP symposium that took place on November 17, 2017, and expands the conversation to include many others, to tell us how they do what they do. Hosted by GSAPP Professor Juan Herreros, principal of Estudio Herreros in Madrid.
Source by Columbia GSAPP
