What does OOIIO mean?
“OOIIO doesn’t mean anything particular, therefore, it can mean whatever.”
The studio was born in La Mancha, around 2010, with the desire of becoming a laboratory of architecture, a platform from which to explore creative solutions to various architectural problems which do not have a clear way forward.
A blank canvas, a long roll of paper on which to draw and imagine architecture.
It had to be named something, so, it was called OOIIO.
OOIIO is intentionally not named after anyone, as it is not the work of a single person, but the result of group collaboration over time.
Architecture is a team art that serves to turn a dream, an idea, into physical reality. A creative and technical process that takes this imaginary concept through dozens of hands and minds, which mold it until achieving a final physical result, capable of transmitting emotions through space, the composition of volumes, materials and light.
OOIIO represents all the people who have participated throughout any phase of a project, including architects, engineers, interior designers, construction workers, clients…
Since day one, OOIIO has been a practical studio of architecture. It was not born with a theoretical manifesto under its arm, marking a clear direction of work towards a specific objective. Rather, its interests have been shaped on the job and from the experience of trial and error, like any other laboratory.
OOIIO is more of a workshop than an office. The studio follows a work method based on an open creative process, always beginning each project ‘from scratch.’ This way, new paths open through the search of solutions from various points of view, adopting new attitudes and approaches to architectural problems that arise.
Ultimately, at a glance, it may seem that OOIIO’s projects are disparate and different from each other.
The reality is, over time it becomes apparent the studio follows a clear line of work. Little by little, a Darwinian succession of ideas, interests and concepts is created, evolved from one project to another, not in a straight line, but like that moving spiralon a piece of paper one draws when scribbling without thinking.
An unexpected path at first which takes shape as the years and work progress.
The studio itself, is built in the same way as each of its projects, from a proactive and creative attitude for solving complex problems that opens a priori unsuspected paths, forming functional and emotional architecture.
In reality, OOIIO is a large project composed of dozens of other projects where various interests and architectural concepts are being explored without the need to reach a particular goal, but rather, enjoying the path through the practice of architecture.
This is the key to understanding OOIIO architecture: taking a step back and looking at the whole, before returning and inspecting a particular piece.
The Keys to OOIIO
The Forms Speak
OOIIO’s architecture has a clear sculptural intent, it is clear to the studio:
“In architecture, form is one of the most powerful tools when it comes to transmitting emotions.”
When one stands in front of a fascinating sculpture, something magical happens, in some way this inanimate object is capable of creating a real emotional response within us.
An object capable of arousing our curiosity suddenly makes us feel inexplicably attracted to it, often without realising it. It instinctively creates a poetic and emotional dialogue between the object and the human through our senses.
Sculptors know this very well and work carefully on each piece they produce to play with the viewer and provoke certain emotions. While architecture is not sculpture, it can and should utilise form as a tool for evoking emotions within its users.
Forms speak, they tell us things, they provoke sensations. This can be very useful in architecture.
OOIIO’s projects work in particular on the expressive capacities of form. They strive to evoke emotion through the intentional management of the volumes that devise their buildings, the careful composition of each piece, the precise choice of the material that covers them, the color… and how light then infuses everything.
Buildings touch, smell and hear each other.
The materials in a work of architecture are like the words in a novel. Each brick, each window or each piece of floor is strategically arranged to build a whole, a large singular and unique object, a building.
The materials must reinforce the intentionality of the design, to accompany and enhance the architecture. They serve the final intent of the project.
OOIIO´s architecture is expressive, therefore, the materials are also expressive. The studio likes to use common materials in an uncommon, unexpected way, because that awakens emotion.
Materials have texture, they produce a different sound on impact, they are cold or warm to the touch, they smell, they have gloss, nuance, color… White, gray and black are not the only options. There are as many colors as one can imagine, and they are all there to use. You have to know how to use them.
All these qualities of each material contribute in special ways to transmit emotion through architecutre.
That is why OOIIO works on projects both from the outside and the inside, because buildings are experienced both ways. The correct choice and combination of materials inside and outside greatly enhances the intentionallity of the project.
OOIIO is always committed to the wise and rational management of all pieces that take part in construction. Each material has a price and involves a certain energy consumption in its production, transportation and installation. It is essential to be aware of this impact when choosing and completing the project in a sensible and balanced way.
KISS = Keep It Simple Stupid
A building doesn’t need to be complex to be good, it is usually the other way around. Knowing how to work and invest strictly the right resources when building greatly facilitates an already complicated process.
To construct an idea, you need to go a long way, often uphill. Each step requires great specialization and very different skills. The process extends over several months, going through different phases (creative, technical, administrative, executive…) Normally, all types of problems will have to be overcome, some expected and others unexpected, while managing the interests of dozens of agents involved in the construction of a building, with very different interests, some of them conflicting.
Why complicate what is already complex by nature?
An architect’s pencil stroke on paper, a seemingly harmless gesture of a couple of centimeters, is really a very powerful line because it can show the way to turn a dream into something real.
These few centimeters of graphite on paper will ultimately transform into hundreds of hours of work for construction workers, thousands of euros of materials CO2 released into the atmosphere…
OOIIO is always looking for simple solutions, which may later seem complex, but they are not.
Keep it Simple, Stupid! This way, you speed up the process, control the budget, and both the environment and your client will thank you.
Poetic Links
When we design, we dream. We let our imagination fly and it takes us to the most unexpected places.
At OOIIO Architecture there is an understanding that the job of a designer is precisely to control the imagination, that amorphous and unpredictable torrent that comes directly from the world of dreams, and trapi t with the network of functionality and logic.
Imagination is very powerful. Dreams open the locks of the most tightly closed doors for us. The important thing is to know how to guide the power of creativity in what interests you as a designer, to confine it and support it with the crutches of technique and reason.
That is the job of an architect, to give a physical form to our dreams.
At OOIIO Architecture, the intentional use of memories, similarities, irony, thoughts and ideas that come from anything, are applied to the design process of their projects, with a precise and clear intention, opening paths to achieve different and fresh results.
A memory of anything, architectural or not, is a poetic link that leads you to an unexpected solution. Like when you click a link while browsing the internet and you end up discovering a different answer that opens new paths and helps you solve a problem.
Buildings have more lives than a cat.
You can recycle a plastic bottle, a piece of paper, a can … and a building!
A home originally designed for a family with 5 children and two dogs can suddely become an artist’s workspace. The office of an agency can be transformed into two apartaments. A store becomes a greenhouse and a car workshop reinvents itself as a bank office.
The world is changing faster and faster and most of the buildings around us have ben built to last at least 100 years.
Rather than demolishing and rebuilding, it is worth recylcing and extending the useful life of a structure that has become outdated. Recycling spaces is another way to contribute to making a more sustainable world.
Today’s comfort and energy efficiency standards are far from what they were 30 or 40 years ago. The family unit has changed, and is diverse and flexible. You work from home. The Independence of each individual is valued, even within their own families.
A very important percentage of OOIIO Architecture projects are recycling of pre-existing spaces. In the studio, these interventions are approached with the same spirit as the new work: from creativity and technique, with the addition of understanding and taking advantage of the values of what is already there.
It is surprising, the results that can be achieved by giving new life to a place that has become obsolete. The new + the old usually add upto much more than something 100% new.
Playful character of OOIIO Architecture.
If we stop to think, constructing an idea into reality is something magical.
The whole process of materialisation and concretion that leads to turning a thought into a space is truly fascinating.
Construction is a party, an incredible human transformative and creative action.
Architecture is a celebration of life, of what it means to be human. An opportunity.
The works of OOIIO try to avoid the seriousness and boastfulness of the attitude of modern architecture. Instead, getting closer to the casualness and apparent relaxed post-modern character.
If you analyze OOIIO’s architecture you will notice a sense of humor, irony and freshness in drawings and concepts. A playful architecture that even seems to have fun.
In the end, if you have fun designing, it will show in the buildings.
Not all construction is architecture.
For OOIIO, architecture is art. An inhabited art.
Good Architecture, which is written with a capital ‘A,’ is always carried out with a communicative purpose, it expresses ideas, emotions, a vision of the world. To do this, it uses all types of resources, both material and spatial, aesthetic, technical…
Architecture reflects the culture of its time, transmits social, economic, political, pedagogical, religious … human values in short. Therefore, it is easy read the thoughts of a specific culture that lived at a specific time through its architecture.
Now, not all construction is architecture!
A building, just because it is a built and functional object, does not necessarily have to be Architecture.
Architecture is something else.
The difference between simple construction and Architecture is better explained with the senses and the soul than with words.
As Miguel Fisac said, “Architecture responds to a why, a how and I don’t know what.”
It is precisely that “I don’t know what,” which one cannot easily explain and excites, that makes the difference.
Handmade Architecture
Anyone who enters the OOIIO Architecture’s workspace will see that there are sketches, models, notes, everywhere.
As Alberto Campo Baeza says: architects think with their hands, at least pre-digital architects. New generations tend to let the computer think for them. At OOIIO, those ancient techniques of the sketch, the working model or the notebook are used daily to write down ideas and notes for the project. Architects still imagine a solution and draw it; they don’t wait for the computer to do it for them.
OOIIO is a handmade architecture workshop, where custom spaces are created. Exactly like a tailor makes a suit adapted to the body of each client.
When drawing by hadn and making models of the projects, we dedicate time to them, we touch them, we mold them, we try things, we let ourselves be guided by instinct, by what the project asks for, until the result is optimal.
Handmade Architecture
Anyone who enters the OOIIO Architecture’s workspace will see that there are sketches, models, notes, everywhere.
As Alberto Campo Baeza says: architects think with their hands, at least pre-digital architects. New generations tend to let the computer think for them. At OOIIO, those ancient techniques of the sketch, the working model or the notebook are used daily to write down ideas and notes for the project. Architects still imagine a solution and draw it; they don’t wait for the computer to do it for them.
OOIIO is a handmade architecture workshop, where custom spaces are created. Exactly like a tailor makes a suit adapted to the body of each client.
When drawing by hadn and making models of the projects, we dedicate time to them, we touch them, we mold them, we try things, we let ourselves be guided by instinct, by what the project asks for, until the result is optimal.
OOIIO Method
«To achieve great results with little resources.»
We define ourselves as a creative company, focused on innovation within architecture through achievable solutions.
It is our responsibility to know how to use the right resources to design a project in the most effective way.
We believe that simplicity and the re-interpretation of tradition are the key to find the most intelligent solution to a design problem.
OOIIO Architecture will always stand up for the surprise factor, singularity and creativity, no matter the size or budget of the project.
We dedicate a large part of our resources and time to the research of innovative solutions based on what we already have; on the starting point conditions.
Our main aim is to incorporate the extra value of creativity in every single project looking for standing out from the rest.
OOIIO team works with dedication and talent, solving every single detail of a project by stablishing a very close and on-to-one relationship with our clients.
We offer fresh and innovative architectonical solutions, full of originality and surprise aimed to give sustainable and efficient answers to different problems raised by the clients.
In OOIIO we go beyond boredom and repetition. Our team works with passion and full dedication to find that “key” that turns a project in a singular architecture work able to thrill and convey sensations.
We use different design techniques in our projects; not only technological tools We do not waive to work with our own hands by sketching and building models, in order to preserve the human sense of architecture.
OOIIO projects have been awarded, appreciated, published and displayed in multiple publications, conferences and specialized awards. More than ten years of upward work path prove the technical solvency of a professional team committed to its passion: architecture.
We create customized architectural projects