a2o was founded after winning the open call for the VAC in Hasselt in 2000. The choice of name at its founding is meaningful: "atelier for architecture and environment" reflects, on the one hand, the contextual priority that the firm emphasizes (architecture and environment), and on the other hand ("atelier") the open approach to design in which multiple expertises, insights, and stakeholders are involved.
The approach to context is based on searching for patterns that strengthen the coherence of our environment. a2o looks for these patterns in space (patterns that ensure connectivity between places) and in time (patterns that emerge when places are changed, expanded, or restored).
The approach to the idea of an atelier is based on organizing a2o as a platform; a team that brings together different people with their own insights and expertises, but with the same values. This team is the human force behind a spatial toolkit used to realize various building projects. The toolkit includes different typological concepts that were discovered, invented, and further developed over time, and are tailored to the environment and the task. In this way, the concepts gradually renew themselves: this provides both recognizability and development within the oeuvre of a2o.
During the one-day expo on April 24, 2025, the firm presented some of the keys to this process, and how these lead to appropriate interventions. On the one hand, there are the architect’s tools for designing from abstraction: maps, texts, sketches, models, drawings, digital tools. These are old tools.
On the other hand, there are also very contemporary tools in the realm of digitalization, such as BIM (Building Information Modeling), parametric design, and AI.
In addition, 36 images of realized projects were displayed. The images show how the firm succeeds in creating meaningful places using its toolkit. They show how these places are architecturally related. They also show the connections: between inside and outside, between the new and the existing, between the private and the public, between the built and the natural. The photos show projects from the entire 25-year oeuvre. They have been selected for their abstract visual power, to show how these places express strength and quality as stand-alone entities.
