A’U
The name comes from the word “A’ü” in Wayuunaiki - a South American indigenous dialect, which can be translated as “seed” in English. We believe that each project is a vessel full of raw potential and opportunities to explore ideas, establish new relationships and, ultimately, create great design.
The practice
At A’U, architecture is understood as a holistic discipline that engages the built and natural environments simultaneously. We work with the essentials of design—mass, proportion, light, color, and materiality—together with landscape, program, site, budget, and client requirements to shape spaces that are both intentional and deeply rooted in context.
Our practice operates as a space for exploration, where architecture and landscape are conceived as one continuous system. Contemporary and traditional references intersect, function and form develop in parallel, and design decisions are informed as much by ecological and spatial performance as by use and experience.
With a positive, imaginative, yet grounded approach, we view constraints as catalysts for innovation. Each project is tested through multiple lenses—formal, environmental, material, and operational—allowing us to exhaustively explore options before arriving at a precise and individual response. The resulting work is often unexpected, yet cohesive, addressing program, site, and environment in an integrated manner while remaining attentive to budgets, schedules, and long-term viability.
Collaboration across disciplines is fundamental to our process and extends beyond consultants to include our clients as active participants in shaping meaningful, resilient environments.
The team
A’U operates between New York, Miami and Bogotá, bringing together professionals with backgrounds in architecture, landscape architecture, interiors, and real estate. This interdisciplinary structure allows projects to be approached holistically from the outset, with close collaboration alongside engineering and technical consultants to ensure design intent, performance, and constructability are aligned.
Our principal, Juan López, has been practicing architecture since 2003 with architecture and real estate development firms including Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Alloy Development and Oppenheim Architecture. Juan has degrees in architecture from Columbia University in New York and Los Andes University in Bogotá and in real estate & finance from FIU in Miami. He spends his time between New York and Miami.
