Constructing Practice: People's Architecture Office

James Shen, of People’s Architecture Office, talks about the studio’s interests in design and social impact. People’s Architecture Office (PAO) is a multidisciplinary studio founded in 2010, in Beijing, China, focused on social impact through design. It is the first architecture practice in Asia certified as a B-Corporation and serves as a model for social entrepreneurship. PAO’s office is located in a traditional courtyard house in Beijing’s historic core, a setting characterized by urban informality, and one that inspires the studio’s work. The studio’s award-winning works have been exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Harvard Graduate School of Design, and the London Design Museum.

“We feel that architecture practices today are less and less able to have a real relevance in our built environment, as well as in our natural environment. So for us, social entrepreneurship is something that we see has a potential for us to engage in a more full way.”
—James Shen

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, principal of Estudio Herreros in Madrid.

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