According to MAIO, architecture is moving beyond material and context: it is drawing from ideas and concepts that have outgrown the contingencies of one specific place and one specific time.

At the lecture, MAIO used its own projects to argue that architecture cannot be understood in isolation, but rather must be considered part of a whole, part of a broader and more complex cultural and social network. For MAIO, working in architecture means forming relationships and setting up adaptable systems. Ultimately, architecture is used to establish an order in which things happen.

MAIO is a new architectural studio made up of Maria Charneco, Alfredo Lérida, Guillermo López and Anna Puigjaner. It aims to merge professional practice with academic activities such as research and publishing. Since 2011 it has managed the COAC-Architecture Institute of Catalonia’s journal Quaderns d’Arquitectura i Urbanisme. The architects at MAIO also teach at the School of Architecture of Barcelona.