Wendy Saunders and Vincent de Graaf studied architecture and interior design in Amsterdam, where they met in 2000 through a local architect, John Bosch. He was Saunders’ boss and Graaf’s professor at the time. The couple bought and restored a 35-metre cargo ship where they lived and worked in the centre of the city. On occasion, they used their floating dwelling/office as a mode of transportation, moving back and forth between Amsterdam and Bruges, Wendy’s hometown, where they oversaw some of their earlier projects. In our video interview, Graaf mentions, “It was an adventure. Our house had turned into a sort of travelling architecture. We even contemplated naming our practice, Traveling Architecture Office.” Wendy added, “After a while, my relatives started wondering, ‘When are you going to settle?’ They meant—come to live with them in Belgium. So, we decided to make our last trip before finding home.” The two quit their jobs, completed independent projects, rented out their boat in Amsterdam and boarded a Trans-Siberian train to Shanghai, intending to stay in China for up to six months. 20 years later, they are still there.

Saunders was born in 1972 in Bruges. She grew up in a family of shoemakers; her mother is Belgian, and her father is English. She connects her interest in architecture to the family’s dedication to craft-making. After studying architecture in Ghent, she relocated to Amsterdam, apprenticing at architectural practices, working primarily on housing blocks during the social housing building boom in The Netherlands. At 14, Saunders came across a magazine with an article on the Atlantis, a 20-story condominium building in Miami with the iconic five-storey palm court square cut-through. Designed by Arquitectonica, the building made a powerful impact. She said, “I thought, if that was architecture, I wanted to do that! It opened a new world for me.”

Graaf was born in 1970 in Amsterdam to a family of a civil servant and a housekeeper. He studied interior design before switching to architecture and urban design. Early on, he worked as a carpenter to support himself. He then won a social housing project competition in Amsterdam, which allowed him to start a small studio. He still sees projects from the point of view of their constructability. “Architecture is so much more than a mere image,” he told me. During art school, a teacher introduced him to the early works of Frank Gehry. Instantly, it resonated and sparked interest in experimentation with unfamiliar but visually fascinating materials and forms. While still a student, he apprenticed at the office of Maxwan Architects, where he worked on urban projects. He said, “I realised that architecture can be used for the good of the city. It was eye-opening. I understood the importance of buildings’ relationships to one another in the context of a city.”

The couple started their AIM Architecture firm in 2005. It now has 40 professionals and satellite offices in Antwerp and Chicago. In an interview with STIR, the architects discuss establishing themselves in China and why they never returned to Europe.

Vladimir Belogolovsky: China was not a conscious choice for you, but that’s where you found all the opportunities to start your practice. How did it begin?

Wendy Saunders: It is true. We knew we could always go back if it didn’t work out. We came here by train, which took two weeks, for a reason. We wanted to experience the distance and contemplate the cultural difference. It was still a shock when we arrived. We could not understand anything. Through friends of friends, we found jobs quickly. I worked at a local office. Everything was standardised, mechanical and very efficient. After five months, I had to leave. Everything was too fast and impersonal. 

Vincent de Graaf: I also worked for a commercial office owned by a successful Chinese architect who studied at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. We worked on enormous commercial projects. Everything was done super-fast and without conceptualisation. If I had to describe the whole process in one word, the word would be crazy. [Laughs.] So, as soon as we were asked to design an art gallery for a friend, we jumped at the opportunity. That’s how we came out of the insane situation we were in. We became independent because we absolutely had to. [Laughs.]

We don’t want to make architecture perfect. We react to specific situations, and we are against any decoration. We focus on people and how they interact in our spaces. – Vincent de Graaf

VB: Soon, you started your collaboration with SOHO China. Did that become your first breakthrough?

WS: That happened a few years later. Our first breakthrough came from Vanke, another major real estate developer in China. In my previous experience, I worked for Zhang Haitao, then the head of the Shanghai branch. We had a good working relationship, so he called me and offered to collaborate. It was that phone call that made us want to start AIM. We did some studies, but they were not built. Still, it kept us moving by working on renovations.

VdG: Eventually, we designed a house for a wealthy couple. When we submitted our plans, the clients shared them with the owners of SOHO China. That’s when Zhang Xin, the co-founder of the company, liked our detailed drawings and asked us to pitch for her project. That led to our long collaboration. That helped to establish our office.

VB: Zhang Xin helped to establish contemporary Chinese architecture and bring world-class Western architects to China. How was it to work with her?

VdG: Absolutely fantastic. Nothing was impossible to her. She looked into the future and wanted to build buildings to celebrate futuristic qualities. If it weren’t futuristic, it wouldn’t be a go. It was all about pushing China into the future. She used architecture as her company’s brand tool, which famously led her to hire Zaha Hadid and other leading architects. Xin would never cut corners. If she liked your idea, she would support you 100 per cent and put her entire organisation behind you to realise it. I miss working with her. [Laughs.] 

VB: How extensive was your collaboration? 

VdG: Very. We did her penthouse here in Shanghai, a building’s lobby renovation, a showroom and public spaces for another building. Then, we worked on designing a retail project which included landscaping. There is one cinematic space we did, which was used for a Taiwanese film. We also renovated the villas in the famous Commune by the Great Wall, a private collection of contemporary architecture designed by 12 Asian architects.

VB: Why is your office called AIM Architecture?

WS: We wanted to express our motto. For us, it defines a direction, meaning to go in with a purpose. It is both a notion and an action. Years later, we started using it as an acronym for Authentic Immersive Matters. 

Our work is not preconceived. We want to make spaces that can move people emotionally. We want that to make a positive impact. – Wendy Saunders

VB: Where do you derive your inspiration from?

WS: Our influences come from the street life here in China. In Western Europe, so many things are well-regulated and there is little space left for unscripted things, especially in smaller historical towns where it is all about preservation. Public and private spaces are well-defined. Exteriors are separated from the interiors. There are customs, traditions and rules to follow. There is order. China is different. It is like an explosion. Boundaries are blurry everywhere. We see it as extremely lively and exciting. We like this chaos. On the other hand, we find such new areas as Pudong too organised and sterile. This conversation is what feeds our imagination the most. There was also a trend to focus on creating spaces indoors, but we wanted to contribute to bringing the outdoors in and making spaces in the city enjoyable.     

VdG: We don’t want to make architecture perfect. We react to specific situations and we are against any decoration. We focus on people and how they interact in our spaces. We also think of sustainable ways of building by constructing what’s necessary, not something that won’t last. Most of all, we focus on people’s experiences. In one of our projects, the HARMAY Fang store in Shanghai, we gave the whole first floor to the city by turning it into a bar, a gathering place. It became a popular place, a lively public square with the shop above where people were drawn because of the activities below.

VB: When you describe your work, you use words and phrases such as diffused, blurring, connectivity, and infused with layers of history. How else would you describe your work and what kind of architecture do you try to achieve?

VdG: Our key intention in what we try to achieve is to activate communities with our architecture. Many of our projects have a single dominating feature, whether it is a spatial organisation, form, material, or colour. We go for one unifying identity and powerful impact. All our projects have a strong common denominator. Regarding materials and products, there is no limit to what we can utilise here in China since we work in the world’s factory. We can build anything.

WS: Our work is not preconceived. We want to make spaces that can move people emotionally. We want that to make a positive impact. We want our architecture to be as memorable and emotional as a theatre.

VdG: We use all kinds of tools and ideas. We also use heritage as a context. We try to preserve it in our projects as much as we can. 

WS: We try to bring honesty into our work. If we deal with new materials, we express them in new ways. We don’t see materials as layers of beauty. They need to express ideas of constructability and show relationships to other materials. We need to have a reason for juxtaposing various materials.

VB: Always?

WS: Well, sometimes it is okay to use materials as a finish. It is good not to impose too many rules. Sometimes, it is okay to be superficial. Architecture can be both based on rules and gut feelings. As long as you are critical, both approaches can be justified. Sometimes, we are against something decorative, but other times, that’s what we do. This realisation gave us freedom. Any ideology is limiting. We are against being restricted by anything. I am not looking to follow rules, whatever they may be. Here in China, we are very conscious of this. We are not trying to be pure. We are kind of in between—we were trained in Europe, we work in China and we operate in a constantly changing context.