The search for inspiration deep into a spatial or social context aptly describes AHA's practice. Projects feed from a site-sensitive approach that leads the thought process to take advantage of different contexts. The lecture will show how curiosity and admiration for everyday life situations and ordinary spaces as domestic environments may in fact present qualitative opportunities when designing a project. How can we create a link between these multiple feelings, sensations and space experiments on the one hand and our imagination and designs on the other? This lecture will be illustrated by images showing the references influencing AHA's work and how they are integrated in the design processes of ongoing or completed projects.
Aurélie HACHEZ (1983) graduated from ISA St. Luc and ISACF La Cambre in Brussels in 2008. In 2012, she founded AHA, her own architectural office, and since then her practice has focused on designing projects of different scales including furniture design, interior renovation or the construction of new spaces and buildings mostly in the rural and urban context of Belgium. Her attention is constantly directed toward spatial experimentation, concern for proportions, light and respect for existing materials. Her work on projects is characterized and formalized by the definition of details, objects, and combinations of materials which are worked out through relevant construction techniques. These defining choices unify each project and gives them their particular character and identity. She uses a collaborative approach that leads her to work with artists, craftsmen and other architects, and to participate in international juries and competitions.
AHA is currently working on a number of projects such as the renovation of a 1920 listed apartment, the construction of a student residence and of a special education school, and the competition for the design of liturgical furniture for the medieval Cathedral of Tournai (Belgium).
